Confusion about talks between Washington and Tehran
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As confusion surrounds the prospect of talks between Washington and Tehran over a possible end to the war, could Iran's parliamentary speaker play a role? We learn more about that speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
Also in the programme: The AI company Anthropic vs the Pentagon; and rescuing moon bears from captivity in Vietnam.
(Photo: A view of a residential building damaged by a strike, in the US-Israeli conflict with Iran. Tehran, March 23, 2026. Credit: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.3 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:13.2 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:14.7 | I'm Leila Nathu. |
| 0:16.1 | Are they actually talking? |
| 0:17.5 | Will they talk more? |
| 0:18.5 | And what about? |
| 0:19.7 | There are many unanswered questions |
| 0:21.2 | about what President Trump described yesterday as constructive discussions between the US and Iran |
| 0:26.8 | on ending the war, talks which apparently led to the postponement of threatened US attacks on Iran's |
| 0:33.0 | infrastructure. The White House now says the situation is fluid after Iranian officials denied having any contact with the US. |
| 0:40.1 | Potential mediating countries are now circling. |
| 0:43.2 | Some see President Trump's announcement as a sign he was looking for a way out of the conflict and to soothe markets. |
| 0:49.1 | But as anyone following his comments from one day to the next knows, this may not be a settled position for long. |
| 0:54.9 | I've been speaking to our chief international correspondent, Leis Doucette. |
| 0:58.3 | What does she make offer the prospect of a negotiated endgame? |
| 1:01.9 | President Trump has certainly put it on the agenda now. |
| 1:05.4 | You'll remember a few days ago he had said that they were considering winding down the war, as the phrase he used. |
| 1:13.0 | And then that was immediately followed up two days later by him threatening to bring the region to the brink of an even greater disaster. |
| 1:20.5 | When he said that if Iran didn't open up the strait of four moves within 48 hours, |
| 1:25.5 | the United States would attack Iran's power plants and energy infrastructure, |
| 1:30.3 | which would have plunged Iran into the dark and triggered a very destructive wave of |
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