Iran’s internal rivalries
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A leaked recording has startled observers of Iran’s government and military. Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was caught out when an interview meant for the archive of a state-sponsored think-tank found its way to the media. Jeremy Bowen explains what it revealed about how the country really works. President Biden has issued an official statement that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks from 1915 onwards were a “genocide” - a term that's always enraged Turkish nationalists. Biden’s statement was welcomed in Armenia and by the Armenian diaspora, but roundly rejected by Turkey’s President Erdogan. Orla Guerin reports on the impact of the White House’s verdict on history. It has been three weeks since the volcano in St Vincent, La Soufriere, erupted. Ash rained down on the northern part of the island; more than a tenth of its people had to to shelter elsewhere and most crops have been ruined. Will Grant reached the red zone and saw how much needs to be rebuilt. Chile has had one of the world’s most successful vaccine rollouts, with over 40% cent of its people having had at least one jab. But infection rates haven’t fallen as rapidly as was hoped. Some experts say the country’s experience is proof vaccination alone can’t keep whole populations free of Covid. Jane Chambers detects some disillusion in Santiago. The self-declared Islamic State attracted around 40,000 foreign fighters to its territory, and many brought wives and children with them. Josh Baker spent years following the story of one American woman who travelled to Syria with her husband, taking her young son, Matthew, too. The boy survived more than two and a half years there and is now back in the US. Tracking him down took Josh to several unexpected places along the way.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.6 | You pick your words carefully to describe some events long ago, and last week the American |
| 0:12.2 | President's words about Armenia caused outrage in Turkey. |
| 0:17.3 | On the Caribbean island of St Vincent, now covered in ash from a volcanic eruption, they |
| 0:22.9 | wait and hope for a recovery. |
| 0:25.8 | We hear from Chile one of the world's most vaccinated countries that they're still |
| 0:30.8 | not yet free to roam, and there's the story of a small American boy taken to Syria to |
| 0:37.3 | join the ISIS fighters. |
| 0:39.5 | First, the tale of a tape or an audio file, if you prefer, a leaked recording which has |
| 0:45.9 | raised the eyebrows of those who observe Iran's government and military. |
| 0:51.2 | Books of any kind tend to annoy or alarm those in par when indiscretions reach the ears |
| 0:57.6 | of the rest of us. |
| 0:59.5 | Within the labyrinth of Iran's internal politics, the impact's even greater. |
| 1:04.6 | Recently, the country's foreign minister was caught out when an interview intended only |
| 1:09.2 | for the archives, somehow says Jeremy Bowen made its way into local and international |
| 1:15.2 | media. |
| 1:16.9 | Mohammed Javad Zarif seems sometimes to be on a one-man mission to change the stereotypical |
| 1:23.0 | view of an Iranian politician. |
| 1:25.2 | He wears a suit, not a robe and a turban, because he is a diplomat, not a cleric. |
| 1:30.6 | He speaks perfect English after years studying in the United States at high school and university. |
| 1:36.9 | His first job was with the Iranian delegation at the United Nations in New York. |
| 1:41.5 | He went on to be Iran's ambassador there. |
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