Israel says it's killed an Iranian naval commander

0:00Daniel Kearns:This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton and at 1600 GMT on Thursday, the 26th of March, these are our main stories. Israel says it's killed an Iranian naval chief who was involved in operations to cut off the Strait of Hormuz. But will it make a difference? Inside Iran, people try to continue with their lives despite daily bombing attacks from the United States and Israel.

0:28Rachel Wright:I'm afraid that one day the war will end and something good will not have happened. The problems I have are the same problems as all people. Basic needs. I cannot provide them.

0:38Daniel Kearns:And disruption to oil shipments is having an effect on people and countries as far apart as Kenya and the Philippines. Also in this podcast, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, is on his first official visit to North Korea. Both countries are keen to show that they have friends in the world.

1:04Daniel Kearns:We begin with the latest from the war in Iran. Israel says it's killed an Iranian Navy chief, Ali Reza Tangziri, who was believed to be overseeing Iran's operations in the crucial Strait of Hormuz. In a statement, the U.S. military said his death makes the region safer. If confirmed, this would be the latest assassination of an Iranian leader. The death was announced by Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz.

1:33Rachel Wright:Last night, in a precise and lethal operation, the IDF thwarted the commander of the Revolutionary Guard's navy, Tang Siri, along with several naval command officials. The man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz was blown up and neutralised.

1:51Daniel Kearns:Despite suggestions from President Trump that the Iranians want to make a peace deal, with Pakistan saying it's acting as an intermediary, the war continues. There have been further strikes on Iran, with Tehran also targeting neighboring countries. Our security correspondent Frank Gardner is in the Qatari capital, Doha. I asked him about Ali Reza Tangziri. According to the Israelis, he was directly responsible for this blockade. The problem is with all these assassinations that have taken place during this war, is that these people are replaceable. Once a policy is laid down, there is a degree of autonomy and redundancy built into the Iranian system.

2:30Daniel Kearns:That's what the Revolutionary Guards Corps have done. In Iran, it's almost like you've got two parallel militaries. You've got the conventional military, and then you've got the IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. And some years ago, the IRGC kicked out their country's conventional navy from the Gulf and said, we're taking over here. You guys can go and do something else, but we are in charge here. And they've spent the last few years practicing and honing unconventional operations. So things like fast torpedo attack boats, drone swans, and black ops sneaking up and attaching limpet mines to tankers, things like that, as well as boarding and hijacking essentially tankers.

3:15Daniel Kearns:So he will certainly have been involved in much of that, but he's replaceable. Malaysia says Iran has let one of its tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Are other ships getting through? They are, yes. Not most of them. I mean, this is the problem is that Iran is effectively acting like a maritime traffic policeman, deciding who gets to go through and who doesn't. And they are still exporting their own oil, over a million barrels of oil a day, to customers in China, Pakistan, India, but most of the other stuff isn't getting through. And reportedly, Iran is charging $2 million a time for every tanker that goes through.

3:55Daniel Kearns:So this is clearly a far worse, a far less satisfactory situation than the one that existed just a month ago, when Iran had no say, really, in who went through the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, it's got a big long coastline, but there was no question of it choosing who got through. But after nearly a month of being battered by Israeli and US airstrikes, Iran has become defiant and in his no mood to compromise. And they have quite cleverly and malevolently played the strategic economic card, knowing that even though they've got the weaker force militarily, they've got geography and time on their side.

4:35Daniel Kearns:Frank, you're in the Gulf. I mean, as the war continues, are you seeing any shifts in the positions of the Gulf states in terms of what they're willing to do, either to reign in Iran or to end the war? Yes, I am. I mean, there's a definite hardening of views here in the Gulf, particularly in the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, because those are the countries that are getting hit nightly by drones and ballistic missiles. And this is the attitude of all the Gulf Arab states. They didn't support the war and they certainly didn't give any overt assistance to the US or Israel for this war.

5:14Daniel Kearns:But the attitude of the Gulf Arab states is that they have been unjustifiably attacked by their neighbor and they are very cross about it. And some countries on this side of the Gulf really are determined to see an end to the Islamic Republic regime because they're saying we can't live with this regime. Frank Gardner in Doha. The impact of the war in the Middle East, which has been raging for almost four weeks now, is being felt not just within the region, but far beyond. Disrupted fuel shipments are beginning to affect several countries on the African continent that have close ties with the Gulf.

5:51Daniel Kearns:Earlier, I spoke to the BBC's Shingai Nyoka, who's in Zimbabwe. I think this impact is being felt across the continent in many of Africa's 50 plus countries. So, for example, in Mauritius, we've seen the government announce energy saving measures where they are restricting the use of electricity for non-essential equipment, such as certain types of lights, swimming pool pumps, as well as heating, because they say that their supplies are running low. and this is after a shipment that was expected over the weekend has failed to arrive. They say that they have less than a month of fuel in stock and that really is a picture across the continent.

6:34Daniel Kearns:I think a lot of countries were really caught napping when it comes to this. Many of them have lower than the recommended amount of stock. In Sudan, for example, in South Sudan, in the capital of Judah, they've also begun rationing electricity across the capital. But we've also seen in countries like Kenya, these large economies, as well as in South Africa, reports of hoarding, of panic buying that have forced authorities to call for calm because at some fuel stations, the stocks have run out completely. And so what's the situation where you are in Zimbabwe? It's a very similar picture. Zimbabwe has been one of the hardest hit countries in terms of an increase in fuel prices.

7:18Daniel Kearns:Just to give you an example, over the last month, the fuel petrol price has risen by over 40%. And so, like in many other countries, there's a scramble to try to find solutions. And so Zimbabwe was blending its petrol with ethanol at 5%. And now they say that to try to reduce the price of fuel, they're going to increase that blend to 20 % and also scrap some of the taxes that they'd attached to fuel imports because the impact of that increase is that transport costs have risen by almost double within some of the commuter routes. And so there really is a lot of concern about what's going to happen if this war continues.

8:01Daniel Kearns:That's the question. How bad might things get if the war continues to rumble on? It's anybody's guess. I think the examples that we have or the past experience that we have is linked to the war in Russia and Ukraine, where right at the beginning of that war, the fuel prices went up. Here in Zimbabwe, the price has breached the$2 a litre mark. Then it had risen to$3 a litre. We've heard some experts, including the oil tycoon Aliko Dangote, warn that perhaps Africa will face the prospects of working from home because the cost of going into the office is just simply too expensive for businesses to sustain.

8:43Daniel Kearns:Shingai Nyoka in Zimbabwe. To Southeast Asia now and another country that's been particularly hard hit by ripple effects of the conflict in the Middle East. Transport workers in the Philippines have launched a nationwide two-day strike against surging oil prices. Many of the demonstrators drive delivery trucks and jeepneys, private minibuses that city residents rely on for transport. The Philippine government has introduced fuel subsidies and free bus rides for affected commuters. But protesters say they need a lot more financial support. When gas prices are this high, people are going to have a difficult time getting from place to place.

9:26Rachel Wright:People, no matter what sector they work in, whether that be health, whether that be education. Filipino families are already being deeply affected by the rise in commodity prices, such as for education, for food, for housing and for transportation. Because of that, we're seeing our parents bring home less money for our dinners at the dinner table, as well as we're seeing the rise to the cost of education. And we know that given the precarious situation of Filipino families, they definitely will not be able to absorb that cost.

9:54Daniel Kearns:So why is the Philippines so vulnerable in this latest crisis? The BBC's Shirinjana Tawari was at the protests in the capital, Manila.

10:04Rachel Wright:These demonstrators have been out since seven o 'clock this morning. We attended one protest in another part of Manila and they were very loud. They were very impassioned. And what they're doing is they've got multiple locations of these protests and they're all on busy roads because they're trying to get their demands met by drawing attention to the disruption caused by them striking. These are jeepney drivers, they're small minivan drivers, and other even ride-hailing apps were supposed to take part. They're really suffering from the higher cost of fuel, and they say that they're not getting enough government support.

10:44Daniel Kearns:Siren Janna, a lot of people listening to this might think, well, I'm also suffering from higher energy costs, but the Philippines was the first country to declare an energy crisis, wasn't it? Why is the Philippines so vulnerable?

10:58Rachel Wright:Because it imports the majority of the oil it needs from the Middle East, and those supplies have been disrupted, it doesn't really have another source. Now, the government has said that it is working to secure supplies from other sources. That's one of the reasons that it implemented emergency powers earlier this week, in order to have a bit more flexibility to try and find new suppliers. Having said that, though, you know, even if the Philippines had other suppliers, it also has a problem of capacity. It doesn't have the storage, so it can buy the oil. That oil will also take time to reach the country.

11:37Rachel Wright:And on top of that, it doesn't have the storage facilities to be able to hold major reserves like other countries like your Japan's and your South Korea's.

11:46Daniel Kearns:Any discussions for fixing this problem in the long term? For example, investing in renewables or investing in more public transit.

11:56Rachel Wright:Yes, the government has suggested a number of measures in order to save electricity, including, you know, moving to a four-day working week. And, you know, it's even asked government employees to take the stairs instead of the lift. And also, yes, electrification. But remember, electric cars, for example, the charging infrastructure just isn't there. It's nowhere near along that path of having a very comprehensive charging infrastructure in the country. So there are challenges on that side, and that's certainly not going to happen overnight. What these demonstrators are calling for, though, what their main demands are, is things like fuel tax cuts as well as fare hikes, because that's something that they say the government can get involved and try and control.

12:45Rachel Wright:They're also really unhappy with how unregulated the oil market is. It's completely left to private companies to set the oil price. And these demonstrators are saying that the government could get more involved and help with limiting those price hikes.

13:01Daniel Kearns:Siren Janna, Tawari. Let's get a sense now of what's happening on the ground inside Iran. Footage and interviews obtained by the BBC give a rare insight into the experience of Iranians living through the war. We've protected the identities of the people in this report from our special correspondent, Fergal Keane. Wow. A man feels the shockwaves of missiles striking nearby. From his balcony, he sees the tracer fire, bright red against the dark blue of the night sky. Another night under fire in Tehran. We've been able to obtain testimony from several ordinary Iranians in different parts of the country.

13:44Daniel Kearns:To protect them from official retaliation, we've changed their names and used other voices to speak their words.

13:51Rachel Wright:I'm afraid that one day the war will end and something good will not have happened.

13:56Daniel Kearns:Mariam is an artist who's long struggled with the lack of freedom as a woman and a painter. But she's decided to stay despite the dangers of war.

14:06Rachel Wright:Some of my friends left Iran. I stayed to see what will happen. I didn't want to go far away. I wanted to stay here, observe, and if I can, build something and produce something. The problems I have are the same problems as all people. Basic needs. I cannot provide them.

14:26Daniel Kearns:In another part of the city, Asia was shopping in the market for food to celebrate Nauruz, the festival of the Iranian New Year, the arrival of spring. But the war has turned her local market into a place of absences, faces she will never see again.

14:44Rachel Wright:Everything is supposed to become new, happy, fresh. I thought about how last year was. At this exact time, those people who have been killed came with us for Eid shopping and now they are gone. There is war. Everywhere is war.

14:59Daniel Kearns:There's a deepening economic crisis. The price of foodstuffs has doubled. Families struggle to put food on the table.

15:07Rachel Wright:Iran feels very gloomy. In the past, in every part of the market, people sold things on the streets. Flowerpots, hyacinths, vegetables. They sold fish. Now the streets have nothing. They are all empty. I think people's pockets are empty. Our economy is ruined, and the biggest reason for it is the war.

15:28Daniel Kearns:Each morning brings a ritual of grim transformation. Not just security bases, but homes, shops, offices in rubble. Streets filled with shards of steel. Weary civilians cleaning up the mess made in a war they did not choose.

15:49Daniel Kearns:Pro-regime demonstrations, portraying a united nation, are the only ones allowed. Any dissenters would be swiftly silenced. But at home, with family. with friends they trust, those who oppose the regime are willing to share their feelings. My father, who until 20 years ago would have given his life for Khamenei, after his death brought sweets home to celebrate. This man, we're calling him Mahmoud, is furious with what's happening to his country. They are a group of savages with masks, chanting with loudspeakers, guns and vehicles, constantly moving through the streets, shouting. and everyone is at home, worried, afraid, with satellite signals full of noise and disruption and no internet.

16:38They've blocked the roads, they intimidate every car they see

16:41Daniel Kearns:and behave however they want. The state has their oppressive power, military capability and a strong enough support base to continue fighting. Any ceasefire will likely leave the current rulers in place, at least in the medium term. An escalating war could unleash a far more unpredictable dynamic for the regime and the people of Iran. Virgil Keen. Still to come in this podcast, a sunscreen scandal in Australia.

17:16Rachel Wright:There were products that in one case said it had a 50 plus SPF, when in fact it only had a SPF of four. Regulators are calling for big changes to the industry.

17:36Daniel Kearns:This is the Global News Podcast. Now to North Korea.