The Debate

Today in the Middle East, Day 19 of the war, there have been extensive air strikes, drone attacks and missiles launched. And fall-out is spreading far beyond the so called theatre of war. And the funeral of Ali Larijani, Iran's de facto leader, key advisor to the Ayatollah, the head of National Security, killed in an Israeli air strike just over 24 hours ago in a Tehran suburb. Tonight we're asking: what’s the plan in Iran? Donald Trump finds himself more and more between a rock and a hard place. But at least he can count on his loyal MAGA believers.
The US Congress is calling for Joe Kent to appear in the wake of his decision to resign as head of National Counter Terrorism over Iran. Kent, an erstwhile Trump & MAGA loyalist, a former special forces officer, said “in all conscience I cannot back the Iran War.” This is another example of Trump’s support crumbling over the war. Kent continued to say the US went into battle under the influence of “Israel and it’s powerful American lobby.” Is Trump's political universe starting to implode over his Iran strategy, or lack of? And what does this mean for the Middle East going forward? 
 
Produced by Mark Owen, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Ali Larijani was the head of Iran's Security Council and a key voice in the ear of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Gholamreza Soleimani was the head of the Basij militia. Both were pillars of Iran's security apparatus. If they have indeed been taken out, the question is who replaces them, and will they take Iran down an even more hardline path?
The death of Iran's key figure Ali Larijani raises more questions than answers.
First, Israel says it has killed him in an air strike, but Tehran has yet to confirm or deny.
While Israel and the United States rejoice and call on the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow what is left of their Islamic leadership, the reality on the ground is less certain. The systematic killing of the leaders of Iran since February 28 has created a vacuum in Tehran.
The fear among analysts is that the space will be filled by regime insiders who will be hardened and more radical.
Larijani was the lead negotiator at the now aborted talks to find a peaceful way forward.
Following the death of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – to whom he was a close adviser, some say the de facto leader – some in Washington saw Larijani as a good fit for successor; a man they could perhaps do business with.
Who comes next? What could this mean for the war? And how might it affect the other groups in the region that take their lead from Iran's leadership?

It's Day 17 of the war in the Middle East and as the missiles and drones keep falling, the US president has done a U-turn on needing help from his friends and allies. Donald Trump is calling now for a coalition to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. The US strikes on Iran's Kharg Island on Friday sent a message to Tehran, but did not take away the potential threat to shipping in and out of the Persian Gulf.
For Trump, this call to stand together is something of a turn-around. On March 7, he told US network CBS it was a bit late of the United Kingdom and others to send ships. The US president didn't need British help to win his war. 
Now, Trump is calling on NATO allies to join him in the war he started on February 28 without consulting them. There's a common interest in keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. But would it even be at risk had Trump not started this whole crisis?
Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.

Warfare is always evolving, sometimes slowly: Napoleon’s armies travelled little differently from those of Julius Caesar. At other times, change comes faster than commanders can process, as the futile carnage of the First World War showed. The pace of change on the battlefield today? Fast – very fast.
Introducing the first war brought to you by artificial intelligence. In the first ten days of a campaign that may well have been prepared in a hurry, the US and Israel pinpointed and targeted as many Iranian sites in the first four days as the anti-ISIS coalition did in the first six months of its campaign in Iraq and Syria.
How good are AI-informed kill orders? Are computers already making the call?
The New York Times reports that it was probably humans who mistakenly decided to hit a girls’ school, killing 175. Even if outdated intelligence may be to blame, we’ll ask our panel what role AI might have played.
And what responsibility do tech companies bear when their tools lead to war crimes and mass surveillance? In the battle between Anthropic and the US government over the proper use of its software, who gets the final say: the company, or the government? Especially when the power of this technology is something we do not yet fully grasp.
 
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Ilayda Habip.

One war can fuel another. After the United States and Israel launched an operation that began, on day one, with the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Donald Trump expressed surprise at Tehran’s decision to draw in Gulf oil producers and disrupt global supplies.
From the ensuing energy crisis there are plenty of losers – and one big winner: Russia. Washington is now suggesting it may ease sanctions on Russian oil. The Kremlin’s war effort in Ukraine had been feeling the pinch, but now – even at a discount – it is finding buyers, just as the Trump administration again pushes for concessions from Kyiv.
We’ll ask how Volodymyr Zelensky’s offer of drone technology to Gulf states measures up against Vladimir Putin’s offer to keep crude flowing; how cash-strapped Europeans will react; and, more broadly, at what point a war of the US and Israel’s choosing spreads so far and wide that it becomes a world war. With alliances such as NATO no longer a given, how should the world deal with the danger?
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Ilayda Habip.