Ali Bahreini, Iran’s UN Ambassador: No surrender
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“Donald Trump was indicating that they will attack Iran for a few days and then the system will collapse, and then they will repeat what they have done in Venezuela. And everything went into a different direction. The Iranian nation is not a nation to surrender.” Evan Davis speaks to Ali Bahreini, Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations, about the ongoing war. He talks about Iran’s nuclear negotiations, how it says the war is unfolding, and why it believes their strikes on neighbouring countries are justified. Bahreini has represented the Islamic Republic of Iran in international diplomacy since 1999. He is now speaking at a time of heightened regional and global tension, following a wave of strikes by the United States and Israel, and Iran’s retaliatory attacks across the Middle East. Despite senior Iranian figures being killed, Bahreini insists Iran remains defiant and will never surrender. Thank you to the PM team for its help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Polish President Karol Nawrocki and Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Evan Davis Producers: Guy Emanuel, Caleb Darwin, Lucy Shepperd, Osman Iqbal Editor: Justine Lang and Damon Rose Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Ali Bahreini Photo by SALVATORE DI NOLFI/EPA/Shutterstock (16721914l)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.8 | Hello, I'm Evan Davis, BBC presenter, and this is The Interview from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:11.8 | the best conversations coming out of the BBC, people shaping our world from all over the world. |
| 0:19.2 | If you're not a little bit afraid, then you're not paying attention. |
| 0:23.9 | We have never seen a people so united. |
| 0:27.4 | Do not make that boat crossing. Do not make that journey. |
| 0:30.1 | Being born in America, feeling American, having people treat me like I'm not. |
| 0:34.2 | We're more popular than populism. |
| 0:37.6 | For this interview, I spoke to Ali Bahraini, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations. |
| 0:43.8 | He's been conducting diplomacy for the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1999, under the hardline |
| 0:50.0 | leadership of Ayatollah Ali Khomeini. The supreme leader was killed on the first day of the war by |
| 0:55.9 | the US and Israel and his son Mosh Tabah has been appointed his successor. This interview was recorded |
| 1:02.6 | before the death of the Iranian security chief, Ali Larajani. You're going to hear Iran's |
| 1:08.9 | defence of negotiations over its nuclear capabilities, |
| 1:12.3 | how it says the war is unfolding, and why Iran believes striking its neighbors can be justified. |
| 1:19.0 | This is a message that we have given to our neighboring countries, |
| 1:22.6 | that we don't fight against them, we don't have any war against those countries. We are friends. We belong to the |
| 1:31.2 | same family. In fact, we appreciate the role they have played before the start of war to give |
| 1:37.5 | contribution to the diplomatic process. But unfortunately, we have quite evidences that the bases located in their countries |
| 1:49.5 | are operational against our country. Many military operations, which are carried out by United |
| 1:56.7 | States, are carried out from those bases. And we expect our neighboring countries to |
| 2:05.0 | understand the fact that we cannot sit and watch our country being attacked from those |
... |
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