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and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". christian: hello. i am christian fraser, and this is "the context." >> we had a tough day last night. lost three brave souls. we shall respond. >> we'll do it in a manner of the president's choosing as commander in chief. we will also do it fully cognizant that these groups backed by tehran have taken the lives of american troops. >> i think the international community, if they want to prevent an escalation in our area, should really restrain hezbollah and iran.

christian: president biden says there will be a response to the attack this weekend on a u.s.-based in jordan. but what are the pentagon's options? in the next hour we are expecting a press conference in washington, where secretary of state antony blinken is meeting with nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg. we will take you live to that as soon as it begins. very good evening. there are more than 6000 american military personnel stationed in more than a dozen bases in iraq, jordan, and syria . together they have been targeted over 150 times since october 7 by iranian-linked proxies. yesterday the target was tower 22, a u.s. outpost on jordan's northeastern border with syria. an enemy drone hit the living

quarters on that base, killing three soldiers and injuring 34 others. according to cbs, the drone was flown in at the same time a u.s. drone was returning to base from a mission. reportedly the air defense system had been switched off to allow the american drone in. but that also left in the enemy drone can which flew in on a much flatter trajectory. washington has blamed iranian-backed military groups, with president biden saying the u.s. would choose when and how to hit back. pres. biden: we had a tough day last night. we lost three brave souls in an attack on one of our bases. we shall respond. christian: in the last hour the white house nationals agree spokesman john kirby said washington was not seeking a wider conflict in the middle east. >> we do not seek another war. we do not seek to escalate. but we will absolutely do what is required to protect ourselves, to continue that

mission, and to respond appropriately to these attacks. he's weighing the options before him. as we said yesterday, we will respond. we will do that on our schedule, in our time, and we will do and in a manner of the president's choosing as commander in chief. we will also do it fully cognizant of the fact that these groups backed by tehran had just taken the lives of american troops. i thing i will leave it there. christian: the americans have blamed these are called axis of resistance, a coalition of groups controlled and run by iran's islamic revolutionary guard that are opposed to israel and the united states. iran denies it is able to control these resistance groups in the region. but senior republicans in washington are calling for direct response. among them, senator lindsey graham and senator john cornyn, who both have demanded strikes on tehran. to help us understand more about

the attack and the reaction to it, let's bring in an expert in electronic warfare and air defense at the oil united services institute, and also with us, the former u.s. envoy for middle et peace. if i could start with you, please, address the issue of how much control iran has over these groups. >> we don't really know. what we have said definitively is that iran is funding and training and supporting these groups. we have not yet established definitively where there iran order this attack or intended for to be escalation, intending american soldiers to be killed. that is one of the things we are evaluating. christian: the president has a range of responses on his desk. one would imagine because this is the first time u.s. sdiers have been killed that it needs to look different to earlier responses to attacks thereave been on u.s. bases. how fast should he go and what

should he be looking at? frank: you will see us strike back very hard at iranian militias in syria, certainly in iraq as well. we will do so very mindful of the fact that an escalation that triggers hezbollah's engagement on the northern border with israel would be a calamity for our various efforts to bring this conflict to a close. we'll do so calibrating where deterrence ends and escalation begins in a way that is mindful of the hezbollah issue. christian: can be deal what happened over the weekend in terms of -- well, was it a security lapse, or was it a drone that is capable of penetrating u.s. defenses were easily? >> well, good evening, christian . it is hard to say with absolute certainty, because what we know is what we have heard from reports from organizations such as yourselves. one of the interesting elements to this for me is this indication that the attack seems to have happened when some of

the counter drone systems that would have been protecting that base were deactivated for whatever reason. it seems they may have been deactivated to allow u.s. to land safely without it being engaged by those defenses, and the iranian militia took advantage of the gap in coverage to perform the attack. but i think one of the things that underlines this is you cannot have 100% security against these types of threats. yes, you can try to mitigate them and try to reduce those threats, but there will always be a trade-off. the trade-off in this case is you want to allow normal drone operations from your own site to proceed and to proceed unhindered. the cost of that might be that occasionally you have to slightly degrade, one could say, or reduce protective measures you can employ. christian: just to go over that a bit more, there is one school of thought that it was just a coincidence that the net had

been dropped at the time in american drone was coming in and it followed it in. the other school of thought is that it was a really smart tactic. i heard when general today saying that if you looked at the radar returns, you would have seen the friendly drone coming in if it was right behind it, you probably wouldn't spotted? is that fair to say? hathat's a very good point -- thomas: that's a very good point, kristian radar is an amazing sensor, but it has limitations according to the frequencies you use. a lot of complex physics that i won't bore your viewers with this evening, but certain frequencies, two targets can appear as one. it is like if you stand some distance away, you think you are seeing a single object, but as you get closer it is to object-- two objects. you have the same problems and situations like this. christian: frank, we have got to set this in the wider context,

the war ongoing in gaza. by all accounts from the qatari prime minister we have heard today, progress was made. the foundations have been set for a longer humanitarian pause. but he is warning that if there was a response to this attack over the weekend, it might complicate the issue further. with that being the psident's mind --would that be in the president's mind? frank: yes, although kirby was clear we will be responding almost any any other negotiations going on. the united states and our allies are pushing hard for this unitarian cease-fire. there is no way to address the regional issue, principally without a cease-fire in gaza. we can do hackable with the-- whack-a-mole with the houthis, but we cannot stop them doing what they're doing absent taking away the cause, the gaza war. that will add x impetus to get this is as soon as we can. christian: lyse doucet joining

us in the studio, our chief international correspondent. you are watching this and judging the reaction. are we at another dangerous moment in the middle east? lyse: christian, everyone wakes up and wonders what it is going to be today can which red light is going to flash in the region. is there going to be a devastating houthi attack on a vessel in the red sea shipping lanes? is there going to be a flareup on the lebanon-israel border? and we have the death of the first american servicemen since the israel-gaza war erupted. this is how febrile the whole area is. notwithstanding the american concern and efforts to ensure that this wasn't this contagion which drew and other actors, the reality is that this war has extended far beyond the borders of israel and gaza, and therefore the risks are constantly multiplying. they are low intensity

conflicts, but there is always high risk, including what we are seeing in iraq and syria, the attack with tower 22. christian: the qatari prime minister, aside from warning the united states over its response, did say there would be bringing pressure to bear on tehran. did they have an open door to the iranians such that they would be able to perhaps dial us down a notch? lyse: that is an interesting facet of this moment, that messages have been passed repeatedly to iran. president biden himself spoke about how he sent a private message to iran. qatar for years now has been taking messages to iran for the united states. saudi arabia we understand, because of the more recent rapprochement between the saudi kingdom and iran, of course, long time archrivals between the major sunni and major shia

power. people have been reflecting on the last major highly sensitive american kelly tory attack, that drunk -- retaliatory attack, that drone strike in baghdad that killed a top iranian commander, qasem soleimani. alarm bells rang across the region -- people said why was president trump given that as an option, to kill such an important iranian official. in the end, iran did retaliate, but there was backdoor messaging to try to keep -- calm the fires, because at the end of the day, and is where we are again, neither iran nor the united states wantso engage in a direct confrontation in the kind of escalation which would set this war on a completely different landscape with far greater risks. christian: can i bring you in on that point, frank? in terms of the politics, we

should remember that twice donald trump stepped back from attacking iran directly. they understand within the white house the applications of taking it directly to tehran. but what about the politics domesticallyn an election year? president biden expected to deliver some sort of response, but if he goes too far, it could backfire, couldn't it? frank: it's very tricky situation for thpresent politically at home. on the left you have a lot of young people, progressives especially, who are outraged by our support for israel throughout this war, and then you have the arab american committee in michigan, which is probably going to be the most important state in the next presidential election, which has been very vocal of their outrage with the biden administration. on the other side, as you point out, lindsey graham and others on the republican side have been calling for direct strikes on tehran. i think that is extremely unlikely under the circumstances. which more likely that we will do a targeted responsible be much heavier than we have done

in the past but not so much as to further the escalatory risks in lebanon and otherwise. again, we will turn our focus to the humanitarian cease-fire, which seems to be making good progress. christian: tom, do you see a split in the republican party that could be dangerous? yes, you have talks like lindsey graham-- hawks like lindsey graham, john cornyn, calling for action now, but there is a large rump of the maga wing of the republican party that doesn't want to be drawn in, and i wonder if that makes it more dangerous for the united states. do they see weakness in washington at the moment? thomas: i would echo's frank point and also what lyse was saying earliern, that part of the problem when you look at military options is there is no good options and there is no easy options. one can shudder to imagine what the wider implications strategically would be on the direct confrontation with iran. but i think the other question that the biden administration probably have to face is that

there is every danger that these sort of attacks like t one we saw on tower 22 over the weekend, heavens for bid, but they could run and run. you can have these occasional attacks on u.s. interests and u.s. forces directly throughout the region. at what point do you get to a threshold where it becomes almost inevitable that there will be some sort of direct confrontation? i think all of the parties are working hard to avoid that, but it does indicate have difficulty military options are. christian: and as we look at these pictures from washington, we are checking jens stoltenberg to appear alongside the secretary state shortly. reminding to ask whether pressure benefits, and are they pushing iran to get -- russia benefits, and other pushing iran to get more involved? thomas: it's a very good question. we don't know for definite what level of cooperation between

russia and iran is at the moment. we note in the ukraine situation that iran is supplying military equipment to the russians, particularly in the form of drones. however, from moscow's perspective and mr. putin's perspective, anything that ties up what they see as their main geostrategic rival alongside nato in the middle east or anywhere else in the world, it can only benefit from. the other problem with this is it does detract from what is happening in ukraine. that is still a very bitter war that is ongoing, as we are seeing this crisis can which hasn't abated since the attacks we saw on israel. yes, i think the short answer, russia does benefit, though to the extent to which there is collusion and heart of negotiation between tehran and moscow commit is impossible to answer this point. christian: ok can we will have to pause for a short break, but

thank you very much indeed for your time this evening. lyse will stay with me in the studio, because we are looking ahead to this press conference in washingtoand we will bring you that live when the secretary of state appears around the world and across the u.k., you are watcng bbc news. let's pause and take a quick look at the other had lines making use in the k. today. the families of the people killed in last summer's attack in nottingham have met with the prime minister at downing street. they been calling for a public inquiry into the killings after the students and the caretaker -- he was sentenced to indefinite hospital stay last week. a total of four people have been arrested in connection with the stabbings of two teenage boys, a 15-year-old and 16-year-old who were stabbed to death over the weekend in bristol. the boys were attacked by a number of people on saturday night.

owens fox has lost a high court label case with two people he called pedophiles on social media. the actor turned politician was sued by a former stonewall trustee and a drag artist. in an exchange on x, mr. fox referred to the two as pedophiles. a high court judge said his labeling was harmful, defamatory, and baseless. you're live with bbc news. the navy secretary trip -- the nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg is in washington for talks with secretary blinken and defense secretary austin, meetings that were scheduled sometime ago. this is the live picture from washington, but in light of the weekend's events in jordan, these meetings drawing much greater focus of the momt. this is secretary austin's first day back in the office after his new york treatment for prostate cancer. lyse doucet is with me in the studio. what do you think jens

stoltenberg -- he arrives in washington at a particularly tricky tim this broader deal is going through congress, attached to ukraine aid, with the problem with aid in europe. it is a particularly precarious moment for ukraine. attached to what is going on in the middle east. lyse: ukraine must be at the top of jens stoltenberg's mind. it has been a relative success rate for nato coming off the back of their humiliating defeat in afghanistan in august 2021, where the taliban after two decades returned to power and then suddenly months later there was a full-scale invasion of ukraine, not only ukrainians stand up and fight and defied the russian military might in a way that nobody expected, and then the nato military lines came together as it has never before, and it held for so long,

and the ukrainians kept making startling progress, it became kind of a military fairytale, against the russian military. but where the situation is both on the ground and politically with there being voices in europe, hungry, slovakia -- hungary, slovakia, saying we cannot continue this kind of funding and military support, and even more worrying, obstacles from washington, and the ukrainians have made it clear and jens stoltenberg knows this, ukraine's cannot fight without needles -- nato's military support and the support of the united states. for all the goodwill on the part of some european countries and particularly the baltic states on russia's border, without american military and financial support, this losing fight will become even more -- christian: i was thinking, you look at the meetings today, secretary austin back at his desk, secretary blinken meeting with jens stoltenberg, over in

paris you have go burns, the cia chief, talking to the egyptians, israelis, there is sort of a spread of diplomacy going on at the moment to contain this. it is a mark of this febrile atmosphere you were discussing before the break, that these men have some decisions to make in the coming days and weeks. and decisions which have big implications now. lyse: president biden started his presidency wanting to get america out of foreign entanglements like presidents before him. they talked about the pivot to asia, all this talk about america retreating from areas like the middle east. now it finds psident biden deeply, deeply engaged in the war in ukraine, a war which he cannot control the outcome, as much as he tries, with the eye watering amounts of military hardware and financial aid that the americans have sent to

ukraine. then, through his backing from the get go behind israel, and now he finds himself with an ally which actually doesn't listen to him. they do say thank you for the support, but it is known publicly in private that the u.s. would like to find a way out of this war while still defending israel's war aims, which in israel's phraseology, to destroy hamas militarily, even the members of netanyahu's war cabinet don't think that is possible. president bynum finds himself deeply involved in wars that are not going to what he wants to. christian: with limited control, because as i said earlier, although the foundations for this cause are in place, fairly positive steps forward this weekend, the one sticking point is what happens to hamas at the end of that. israel is adamant that hamas cannot be left in place. the hamas side want it to end

full stop. but that is not going to happen, and that is problematic for president biden in an election year. lyse: there have been reports that president biden is comedic and much more clearly, his aides are comedic hitting -- communicating much more clearly, his aides are communicating to the israelis,e need an end to this war. you cannot have this staggering amount of civilian casualties and untold amounts with the gazans went americans are going to the polls in november. president biden is taking a hit domestically. in michigan, with a height demographic of citizens with arab ancestry, the young voters who brought president biden to power the first time around are very, very angry about how president biden is so staunchly behind israel and isn't using the weapon of controlling the flow of arms and ammunition and money to try to exert greater influence over this war. america is finding out that it

simply cannot -- interesting about these discussions, that is one of the big -- we are told they are making progress and we have heard the qatari prime minister is speaking at the atlantic council. he talked about there being a proposal by israel, being significant enough shape that egypt and qatar were giving into mas. that shows that the talks in paris are continuing f among the sticking point is that israel does not want to call and into the war, whereas -- end to the war, whereas hamas is saying there can only be a deal if the war ends. there are reports that hamas is backing away from that, but prime minister netanyahu is categorical the war is not over -- christian: i hear they're talking about a phased release. lyse: remember, it was like -- christian: with the bridgehead, two-month pause and maybe the

americans can build some thing out of that. lyse: huge. and that alone would ease the pressure. that is a big ask of israel. as we speak they are intensifying their operation, squeezing the population in khan yunis. the southern bases of operation in the gaza strip for hamas. they don't want to be stopped. there have been reports -- one report in "the washington post" saying 80% of the tunnels haven't been destroyed, and this is after huge sections have been razed to the ground. christian: quick word -- you and i have worked so extensively in gaza and we have seen firsthand what unrwa do. but you have read the reports in "the new york times today of 12 people -- intelligence suggest they were distinctly involved. six to seven of them picked up

the -- the ping from their phones was picked up on october 7 across the border. this is a significant problem for the united nations. is there anybody else who can do the job that they do within gaza if the israelis don't let them back? lyse: more than 80% of the population of gaza, of the population's more than 2 million people, are classified as refugees. it is the job of unrwa -- it was set up to deal with the refugee crisis after the 1948 arab-israeli war which led to the foundation of the state of israel. its specific responsibility to educate and provide health care and provide jobs to keep life taking over in the gaza strip. there is no other agency which has that wide, sweeping mandate. what unrwa has been saying is, and it has gone right up to antonio guterres, they said, yes, we will take our responsibility, but they asked

her to bear in mind that there are more than 30,000 people working with unrwa. this is 12, and they are investigating them. one we understand has died. but they narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it, "arguably the best bargain in streaming." that's because the free pbs app lets you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... brook: these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. i'm thriving by helping others everyday. people who know, know bdo. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation.