The US And Iran: How Close Could They Get?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2014
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How much do the Great Satan and the Axis of Evil have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out. They share a mutual antipathy towards Islamic State militants and a mutual desire for a stable Afghanistan. There has been cautious optimism in Washington and Tehran about the talks over Iran’s nuclear programme. And yet there is a legacy of hate and mistrust on both sides that goes back decades. How far can today’s leaders overcome the past to work together on common goals? We have answers from experts who travel back and forth between the two countries, including a former ayatollah.
(Image: U.S. Secretary of State Kerry and Iranian FM Zarif shake hands - Reuters Wires)
Transcript
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| 0:28.9 | Hi thanks for downloading the inquiry here on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:34.0 | It's a new weekly program. |
| 0:35.9 | Our job is to add in-depth analysis to one big question from the news. |
| 0:41.6 | We hope you like it. |
| 0:44.0 | BBC World Service, this is Helena Merriman with the inquiry. This is |
| 0:54.0 | this is Helena Merriman with the inquiry. |
| 1:00.0 | This week, with Iranian and American jets now bombing the same enemy in Iraq, we ask how close could Iran and the US get. |
| 1:06.0 | On September the 27th last year, |
| 1:08.0 | the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations got a call. |
| 1:11.0 | It wasn't a good time. The UN General Assembly in New York was just finishing and his boss, |
| 1:17.4 | President Hassan Rouhani, was leaving for the airport. But he took the call, a call that would make history. |
| 1:25.0 | It was the Americans. |
| 1:28.0 | Did Dr. Rouhani have a few minutes to talk to the President? |
| 1:31.0 | He certainly did. He'd spent a week in the US on a |
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