The BBC's Lyse Doucet inside Iran
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Iranians tell the BBC's chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, they're unsure the ceasefire will hold. Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has warned Iran to choose wisely in negotiations with the United States. He said the US military was reloading and ready to go at the push of a button. We have a report from inside Tehran and ask about the prospects for talks between Lebanon and Israel.
Also in the programme: the South African politician, Julius Malema, has been sentenced to five years in prison for violating gun laws; and we find out how sperm whales mirror the language of humans.
(Photo: Lyse Doucet reporting from Tehran: Credit BBC)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.8 | Hello, welcome to the programme. This is News Hour from the BBC World Service, and we're coming to you live from London. I'm Paul Henley. |
| 0:17.2 | There are still no dates set for new talks between the US and Iran to try to resolve the conflict that's currently frozen in a temporary ceasefire. |
| 0:26.0 | Pakistan's Prime Minister has said he's met the de facto Saudi ruler, crowned Prince bin Salman, in Jeddah, before a possible second round of negotiations. |
| 0:35.1 | Iran's targeted US allies in the Gulf in retaliation for |
| 0:38.8 | US-Israeli strikes on Tehran that triggered the war. The BBC's chief international correspondent |
| 0:44.8 | Lee Doucet is now in Tehran, reporting from there on condition that none of her materials used by |
| 0:50.3 | the BBC's Persian service. These restrictions apply to all international media organisations |
| 0:55.4 | operating inside Iran. She spoke to the BBC's Justin Webb. Well, we've only just arrived in the |
| 1:02.6 | early hours of the morning. airports are still shut in Iran, so it means the only way to get |
| 1:08.1 | to the capital is by road, so it's a more than 12-hour journey. |
| 1:13.0 | But we, at the north, crossing into northwestern Iran from Turkey, we send quite a lot of time at |
| 1:18.7 | that crossing. And so we're able to speak to quite a big flow of Iranians coming back to their |
| 1:23.9 | country, some saying, well, they had to come back to work. They want to be with their |
| 1:27.8 | families. But when you ask them about the ceasefire, you really sense that the enormity of this |
| 1:34.2 | pressure that they just don't know whether it's going to hold or not. It's beyond their control. |
| 1:39.2 | It's in the hands of Washington, in particular President Trump. One man said to me, he's shouting, |
| 1:44.0 | well, President Trump will never leave us to me, he's shouting, well, |
| 1:44.6 | President Trump will never leave us alone. He wants to swallow Iran. And then others saying they were |
| 1:50.1 | a bit scared, but they wanted to be back. And so you really feel that this is a people living |
| 1:55.9 | with war. Before the war, they were living with 60% inflation. They have been living for decades under sanctions. |
| 2:03.2 | So they really are taking it one day at a time. And as we made this long journey, |
... |
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