This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
Hello, I'm Oliver Conway.
This is a special edition on the Israel-Iran crisis.
It's Thursday afternoon on the 26th of June 2025,
two days into the ceasefire brokered by President Trump after 12 days of conflict.
We'll be answering your questions on what happened,
what's next and what it means for Iran and the wider region.
Joining me are Behrang Tajdin from the BBC Persian service and our security correspondent Frank Gardner.
Israel attacked Iran on Friday 13th June.
Two days before a sixth round of talks were due to be held on curbing the Iranian nuclear programme,
Iran responded by firing missiles at Israel.
The US initially said it was not involved, but later joined the conflict,
deploying what it described as bunker buster bombs on Iran's nuclear facilities.
A ceasefire was announced on Tuesday by President Trump.
Iran said more than 600 people had died in the conflict, at least 28 died in Israel.
Well, let's start with our first question which comes from South Sudan.
I'm sure there are other narratives including what we've had from the American officials and also President Trump implied that it was trying to stop the war from escalating and going on and on.
Frank,
why do you think America got involved when initially it said it wasn't having any part of it?
So there's a technical reason and then there's a conspiracy theory.