Iran warns of 'new cards' if fighting resumes
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A senior Iranian military officer says the country's armed forces are ready to deliver an immediate response to any renewed hostilities by the US and Israel. The commander, Ali Abdollahi, was speaking with a two-week ceasefire between Washington and Tehran due to expire on Wednesday. It is still unclear whether peace talks in Pakistan will go ahead. We hear from Nate Swanson who served on the Trump Administration’s Iran negotiating team. Also in the programme: We look at Apple's new boss; and how archery can help women having breast cancer treatment. (Photo: A banner with a picture of Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is displayed during a ceasefire between the US and Iran. Tehran, April 20, 2026. Credit: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.5 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.8 | We're coming to you live from the BBC studios in London. |
| 0:16.1 | In the chair this hour is me, Sean Lay. |
| 0:18.7 | Coming up later, what the King of Horror has in common with the |
| 0:21.8 | Bard of Avon. I was going in there thinking, I know their connections between Stephen King and |
| 0:27.6 | Shakespeare. They're both writing for popular audiences. They both didn't really get their due at |
| 0:31.9 | the time from academic audiences, but they both are master crafts people and they know how to use language to stick in your |
| 0:40.0 | heads. More from Stephen King's academic champion later in this edition of News Hour. But first, |
| 0:46.5 | between Iran and America, the question right now is not what concessions either side will make |
| 0:51.5 | in talks. It's whether they'll get on the plane to reach the venue |
| 0:54.5 | in the first place. So far, no delegation from Iran has departed for Islamabad, Pakistan, |
| 1:00.0 | an announcer on Iranian state television declared. In Washington, the US administration says |
| 1:06.5 | that Vice President J.D. Vance has not left for Islamabad either. In a phone interview with the US News Network at CNBC this morning, President Trump said he believed the United States is in a very strong negotiating position with Iran. |
| 1:19.9 | What I think is that we're going to end up with a great deal. I think it's got, I think they have no choice. We've taken out their Navy. We've taken out their Air Force. |
| 1:28.1 | We've taken out their leaders, frankly, which does complicate things in one way, but these |
| 1:32.0 | leaders are much more rational. It is regime change, no matter what you want to call it. |
| 1:37.7 | The stumbling block between the two sides, preventing talks restarting, is the decision of the Iranians to close the strait of |
| 1:46.6 | Hormuz again as a result of a decision they say by the United States to impose a naval |
| 1:51.9 | blockade in the strait of ships arriving or leaving Iranian ports. |
| 1:56.5 | Frustrating for people like Captain Rahman Kapoor, whose ship is moored and who is waiting. |
| 2:01.7 | We are waiting for further instructions since the Strait of Hormuz was shut again within 24 hours. |
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