Seyed Hossein Mousavian: How vulnerable is Iran?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2024
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stephen Sackur speaks to former Iranian nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian. Now in exile in the US, he is an advocate for dialogue between Iran and the West. With Israel poised to strike, having already delivered severe blows to Tehran, how vulnerable is Iran?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saker. |
| 0:04.9 | My guest today in this interview recorded on the 16th of October is viewed with suspicion |
| 0:10.6 | in both the country of his birth, Iran, and the country he lives in, the United States. |
| 0:16.9 | Sayyad Hussein Musavian's career perhaps explains it. |
| 0:20.4 | He was a diplomat, Iran's ambassador to Germany in the 1990s. Then he was a senior official in Tehran's National Security Council and spokesman for the Iranian delegation at nuclear negotiations conducted from 2003 to 5. But then he fell out of favor. He was accused of spying for the West, convicted and allowed to leave Iran. |
| 0:43.3 | He spent the last decade as a Middle Eastern nuclear policy expert at Princeton's Centre for Global Security. |
| 0:50.0 | If he went back to Iran now, he would face new charges connected to alleged financial wrongdoing. |
| 0:56.6 | But in the US too, there are those who suspect his motives. |
| 1:00.8 | Republicans in Congress have led efforts to have him investigated for links to hostile powers. |
| 1:07.2 | Amid these suspicions, Musavion has tried to advocate for new dialogue and engagement between Iran and the West. |
| 1:15.9 | The election of a, quote-unquote, more moderate figure, as Iran's new president last July encouraged him. |
| 1:23.0 | But then here we are today. |
| 1:25.1 | Israel is applying asymmetric force on its Iranian-backed enemies on multiple |
| 1:29.9 | fronts across the Middle East. And it seems Israel is intent on striking Iran direct in the coming |
| 1:36.9 | days in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel just weeks ago. What will come after |
| 1:43.9 | that? Israel sees Iran as weak and vulnerable. Is that |
| 1:48.2 | true? Well, Sayyad Hussein Morsavian joins me now from Princeton. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you very much, |
| 1:55.8 | Steve. Now, Mr. Mosavian, you know how the theocratic regime in Iran works. How do you think they're |
| 2:04.0 | feeling right now? Do you think they are feeling rattled and vulnerable? |
| 2:08.5 | Steve, I really don't believe they feel rattled or weak or they are in isolated situation. |
| 2:17.2 | They maybe have a different perspective than you and the... or weak or they are in isolated situation. |
| 2:23.8 | They maybe have a different perspective than you and many people they have in the West. |
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