Hi everybody, it's Beth here for part two of our primer on Iran's relationship with the United States.

If you've not yet listened to part one, I strongly encourage you to go back and start there because

I think the context is really important to understanding the evolution of this relationship. When I

began part one, the United States and Iran were on pretty good terms and then the United States

participates in this plot to overthrow the democratically elected prime minister and take Iran back

to a monarchy. We go through the revolution that brings Ayatollah Khomeini to power who is the

death to America guy. So there is a long history there that we really need to understand to know

how and why we got to where we are today. Post-revolution, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

is established or the IRGC. This is the group when the United States talks about Iran as a state

sponsor of terror that drives that terrorism throughout the world. Our State Department classifies

the IRGC as a terrorist organization itself. It also provides money and training and weapons to

terrorist organizations throughout the world. In 1995, the IRGC held a conference of groups believed

to engage in terrorist activities for the purpose of training them to overthrow existing governments.

That conference included the Japanese Red Army, the Armenian Secret Army, the Kurdistan Workers

Party, the Iraqi Dewa Party, the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain and Hezbollah.

It is also critical for you to know that Iran does not recognize Israel as a state and funds

Hamas and Hezbollah as well as Islamist Jihad in Israel. And that is important to understanding

both the United States relationship with Iran and the military activity that Israel is engaging

in in the Middle East right now. A brief aside here, Iran absolutely supports terrorism in the

world. I want you to understand that Iran supports Shia extremism and they're also acts of terror

perpetrated by Sunni extremists. So it is not one branch of Islam that is being used as a basis

for terror. It is also not inherent to either Shia Islam or Sunni Islam to engage in acts of terror

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