Iran and US Tensions Escalate

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Against a backdrop of threats made by President Trump to attack Iran with “speed and violence,” talks between the two nations are set to resume this Friday. Since late December, Iran has been roiled by massive nationwide protests that have been met by a brutal response from the regime, resulting in the deaths of over 6,800 protestors with another 11,000 deaths under investigation according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Will the U.S. use this moment to try to force regime change? We talk to a panel of experts. Guests: Jason Rezaian, director of Press Freedoms Initiatives, The Washington Post; author, "Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison – Solitary Confinement, a Sham Trial, High-Stakes Diplomacy, and the Extraordinary Efforts It Took to Get Me Out" Nate Swanson, director, Iran Strategy Project, Atlantic Council Sahar Razavi, associate professor, Department of Political Science and director of the Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies Center, California State University, Sacramento Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now, are all the traitors present?
0:02.5	Let's get started, shall we?
0:04.5	From rags to riches.
0:05.8	I'm so sick of this.
0:07.0	Working like a dog and being treated worse.
0:09.1	Yorkshire to New York.
0:10.7	Or climbers, you and me.
0:12.4	A life dedicated to revenge.
0:14.4	Let's make this an occasion to remember.
0:16.9	A woman of substance on Channel 4.
0:19.1	Stream now.
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0:24.3	celebrating 50 years of providing medical, dental, and behavioral health care across the East Bay.
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0:34.0	regardless of ability to pay.
0:36.0	Lifelongmedical.org.
0:37.5	From KQED.
0:40.3	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:44.3	The Iranian regime has been in control of the country for four and a half decades.
0:48.3	In recent years, there have been a series of protests, each of which has been met by some level of government repression.
0:55.7	This time, though, according to human rights activists, the government has killed not dozens or hundreds, but thousands.
1:02.5	They also shut down the Internet for weeks.
	...

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