this is the story of the war that dares not speak its name a war that started over 40 years ago but has never officially been declared the war between Iran on the one side and the United States and Israel on the other is both ideological and strategic a conflict that never fails to stir up passions resentment and hatred and if it ever really did kick off in earnest the entire Middle East would go up in flames very possibly triggering a new global conflict so to understand this potential return to barbaric violence we must go back in time to unravel the tangled threads of tragedy and seek the elusive truths behind the dogmas and certainties and tell this story [Music] oh hey the history of war began on February 1st 1979 aboard a flight from Paris to [Music] Thyron an old man prays this is Ayatollah Humeni he is preparing to radically change the history of Iran it's not easy to talk about the greatness of this figure one of his enemies once remarked that there had been no one like him for 800 years and there would be no one else like him for another thousand years the old man historically embodied the people's opposition to the Sha the all powerful monarch who had reigned over Iran for nearly 40 years in exile for 15 years the Ayatollah was finally returning home for the final battle alongside his people a revolution in the name of Shiite Islam a new era was about to begin in the Middle East [Music] [Applause] a year before Kmeni's return an uprising began in Thran in 1978 hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to challenge their ruler [Applause] regime of Sha was a dictatorship military dictatorship army people are everywhere and it's corrupted not only in money and injustice for the people but in the levels of the power it's a closed door for everybody and there is no equal opportunity for for the members of the society [Music] and this corruption is a very good motivation to encourage you to oppose to a a regime demonstrators had had enough of a ruler who bent on making Iran a great power sought to impose westernstyle modernity on them either willingly or by force they viewed it as an unfair and corrupt system that failed to meet the most basic needs of the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] population two countries had come to embody the imperialism condemned by the demonstrators two countries that supported the Sha's regime the United States and Israel today it is difficult to imagine those two countries were the Iranian states closest [Music] allies relations with Iran were excellent at the time many Israelis lived in Iran and helped the country in many areas [Music] for us Iran was arguably our most important partner after the United States in terms of economic interests we undertook some grandiose projects with them back in the 1950s Israel had made overtures to the Sha isolated in an Arab world that refused to acknowledge its existence the Hebrew state was looking for non-Arab partners a little further a field in the Middle East iran Persian pro-western built on a different kind of Islam to the other Arab countries stood out as a natural ally iranians often came to us it's hard to imagine now but it was a very close-knit collaboration c Seev took up his post as military ates in Iran in 1977 a year before the protests began his mission was to strengthen security cooperation between the two [Music] countries at the time I was in charge of fulfilling a contract between Iran and Israel worth 1.2 billion iran was paying Israel to provide equipment and knowhow in very sensitive areas such as missiles aircraft etc the opportunity to see a country that has Washington as well had chosen to make Iran the cornerstone of its influence in the region comes in so fast the high degree of military cooperation was designed to keep tyrann Soviet competition so yes Deja was close to America because he felt that it needed the American support in confronting the USSR and maintaining his government in power so today when I'm giving lectures to young people they don't believe me when I tell them that in 77 and 78 Iran's two greatest allies were the United States and Israel [Music] For both Tel Aviv and Washington Iran under the Shaw was an invaluable partner the key piece in the great Middle Eastern game but neither Israel nor America realized the extent and strength of an opposition that was destined to prevail [Applause] when I spoke with the generals they would tell me "Look it's like measles we're seeing demonstrations at the moment that's the way it is." The sha has asked us to sort it out because he's the military chief well we're sorting it out america was blind to what was going on in Iran society because we didn't have people uh blending in with the society for a while we our contacts were with the higher class people or military people people who were interested in the status quo who wanted to justify their belief in the sha and that things were going well and would continue to go well so those were the peoples that we dealt with they were the people that were not wellinformed and were not going to give us bad news [Applause] the blindness and incomprehension of a regime faced with such a powerful and determined uprising was heading for tragedy that day Black Friday the Shaw's army opened fire in the streets of Thrron the official death toll was 87 but according to opposition estimates it was closer to 4,000 the monarchy had just revealed its true face i remember taking a shower that morning after Black Friday it was called and it it seemed to me that what we were dealing with was a war between the sha and his people and it seemed to me that the sha was not going to win that we were going to deal with a different future in Iran than we had known in the past [Music] the revolutionary process was underway and now there was no stopping it regarded as supporters of the Shaw Israel and American expatriots became targets and began to leave the country protesters attacked cafes restaurants banks and cinemas the western symbols of modernity associated with the strangleold Israel and the United States had on their country the anti-American slogans were because of the dominance of the leftist discourse that saw imperialism uh as the dominant threat as the main contradiction as we used to call it at the time to be solved the religious forces were equally adamant against the US they saw the US as a beacon of modernity and they still do [Applause] the Israeli issue was again connected to this discourse because the left identified then as it identifies now with the Palestinian cause it felt that Israel had uh been uh complicit in denying the Palestinians their right and there was a very uh powerful belief within the Iranian system that the secret service of Iran saw is ran by by Israeli Ms therefore they were saying Americans are dominating ripping of the country and the Israelis also sharing for killing tortures managing organizing the secret service of Shah Sawak and so that's why it was mainly about the US but they have been always Iranians they have seen Israel as part of us tearing down the monarchy breaking ties with Washington and Tel Aviv rejecting Western style modernity all these objectives combined into a single battle to succeed the struggle needed a leader someone to embody it gradually as the movement began to pick up uh momentum and it it was a movement in need of a leadership in need of a leader the person that fit the bill seemed to have been [Music] i have to say that not only the different factions of Islamic movement followed and joined him but the other factions of the movement as well like nationalists like Marxists all factions supported as the leader of the revolution [Music] the time had come for him to realize his dream the application of a radical doctrine in establishment of an Islamic republic a theocracy wherein the ultimate power lay with a religious authority the supreme leader [Music] [Music] [Music] himi set foot on Iranian soil ready to deliver the fatal blow to the monarchy [Music] nothing and no one could stand in his [Music] way it was shocking it was really shocking about 10 million people came to streets of terror this was the biggest welcoming ceremony ever during the history as long as I remember 10 million people to come to welcome a leader and everybody looked at him as the leader of the revolution a charismatic leader and a man of God at the same time uh uh that he will rescue the country and we will have a paradise on the earth [Music] hmeni was now the man who embodied the legitimacy of power especially as the shaw weakened by ill health had departed the country three weeks earlier [Music] 10 days later after only 48 hours of fighting in the streets of Thrron the overthrow of the Iranian monarchy the Sha had ruled over for 37 years was complete the revolution had achieved a total victory ayatollah Kmeni was the country's new leader [Music] this had been the Israeli mission in Thran responsible for the economic ties between the Iran of the Shaw and Israel the revolutionaries immediately attacked the enemies identified by the new regime with the Israeli diplomatic mission sacked and completely [Music] devastated its 33 members the last Israelis still in Iran needed to find a way out of the country nobody went home we moved into temporary addresses with five or six of us in each apartment and we stayed there for a week we all had guns some had passports we were getting ready to flee at that time it was hard very few people were able to venture out into the street a week later it was finally time to leave they traveled in small groups to the Hilton Hotel in central Tyrron where a bus was waiting to take them to the airport a distance of some 17 km 17 km through a hot bed of revolution anything could happen 17 km 10 million Iranians on the other side of the road all with tomatoes and eggs in the bus there was a driver and two Iranians with Kalishnikovs our bus moved on they thought it was a revolutionary bus not an egg or tomato was thrown on reaching the airport they could finally board the aircraft then take off and deliverance perhaps we boarded the plane the engine started and it began to taxi [Music] then all of a sudden it stopped the doors opened and those revolutionary bastards barged in again i thought to myself what is it this time they wanted to carry out one final check i don't know what for then they closed the door and we took off israel meanwhile the Israeli's great enemy Yaser Arafat leader of the PLO the Palestine Liberation Organization was arriving in Thran he was welcomed like a true head of state arafat had become leader of the PLO in 1969 its stated ambition was to create a Palestinian state independent of its Arab backers from his base in Lebanon Arafat alongside his Fedí had been leading his fighters into guerilla actions on the northern border with Israel now he had come to seek the support of Hmini a man he hoped could help Palestinians achieve their independence definitely it changed completely the whole strategic policy in this area in case of a war upside down completely by inviting Arafat to Thran Humeni was sending a powerful message to the entire Muslim world from now on Iran would be supporting the Palestinian cause regarding it as an existential struggle between Islam and the Christian imperialist West Godfather of the Jewish State [Music] it must be acknowledged that for the West Israel is a means of oppression in the Muslim world saying that they wanted to create a country for a people the Jewish people is nonsense [Music] [Music] the West has propagated a lie in order to wield power throughout the whole region knowing full well that we will never accept this country hmeni then took a spectacular initiative instead of the Israeli diplomatic mission there would now be the Palestinian embassy it was quite a statement with this gesture the Ayatollah was severing all links with Israel a state whose existence had no legitimacy for him any strategic alliance between Israel and Iran was now unquestionably a thing of the past the United States recognized the young Islamic Republic but in Washington there was some concern about what kind of relations would be possible with Iran's new rulers within the American government there were differing opinions some thought that committee was an extreme uh uh force and it would be very difficult for us to to deal with i think most people still thought of Iran as a country that you know we could continue to get along with that even though the sha was gone that uh you know we we would maintain relations we had our embassy there then on November 4th 1979 hundreds of Islamist students invaded the American embassy taking 52 diplomats hostage hmeni was hesitant would he support these students and risk seriously jeopardizing relations with the United States would he support them to keep control of the movement when the hostage crisis occurred it made clear I think that we were largely unprepared to deal with uh the nature of Iran at that point and the fact that u the anger that was there and reflected uh in that hostage crisis uh I think suddenly brought Iran to the top of the concerns that we had about uh our situation in the world [Music] the last hostages were finally freed after 444 days by providing support to the students Hmeni was making his case for act two of the revolution to consolidate the new regime but his stance was also the main reason behind the rift between his country and the United States a new Middle East was taking shape nothing would ever be the same again thrron's ambitions and interests were on a collision course with Washington and Tel Aviv the great clash was looming [Music] on this day nearly 90,000 Israeli soldiers 1,300 tanks and 1,500 personal carriers invaded Lebanon a country seemingly unconnected to the emerging confrontation between Iran Israel and the United States torn apart by civil war for many years Lebanon had become a regional battleground syria occupied a part of the country to the east but in the south especially the PLO was all powerful the Palestinian organization had made the area its operational base for instigating deadly raids against Israel on June 6th 1982 Tel Aviv launched Operation Peace for Galilee the objective was spelled out loud and clear to purge southern Lebanon seize control and thus put an end to the guerilla operations launched by Arafat's Fedin we came here to fight and destroy the terrorist organizations that have been killing and murdering our people for years and years that is our goal here ariel Chaon recently appointed Minister of Defense was leading the offensive in the eyes of his fellow countrymen Chiron was a hero a man who had been at the forefront of every military victory Israel had won since its inception in 1948 once we finish it we'll move immediately back we don't have any interest whatsoever to stay here not our country we don't need even one square inch of this country it was all about pushing back the terrorists mainly members of the PLO they had to be forced back beyond a line that would keep Israel safe from their fire rumor had it that they had a long tom longrange cannon which had a range of 40 km so they had to be driven back 40 km or more from the border that was the plan no more no less [Music] within a week Chiron had far exceeded the initial objectives as his army made dazzling advances the operation turned into something much bigger shaon kept advancing further and further north until he got within striking distance of Beirut [Music] thrron looked on stupified with Israeli troops advancing towards the Lebanese capital the balance of power in the Middle East was radically shifting for Humeni it was unthinkable but how should he react engaged in an all-out war against Iraq after the attack launched by Saddam Hussein two years previously in September of 1980 the young Islamic Republic would be forced to fight for its survival for eight long years in what became known as the Iran Iraq war at this stage the Iranian leader did not have the resources to open another front against Israel and Lebanon kumeni issued a statement justifying this decision saying the road to which is Jerusalem goes through Carbala which was uh a religious way of expressing a deeply strategic decision meaning first things first the aspiration for Iran to play some role in the liberation of Jerusalem comes after Iran has managed to defeat [Music] Saddam in Beirut heavy shelling was now falling on the west of the capital where Arafat and most of his troops had taken refuge [Music] part of the city was raised to the ground thousands were dead mostly civilians on August 21st 1982 the Israeli siege ended yaser Arafat paid a final visit to his West Beirut headquarters defeated Arafat departed Lebanon and went into exile in Tunisia with 10,000 of his [Music] Fed they would soon be replaced by a multinational force composed mainly of American and French troops assigned with ensuring the safety of the Lebanese capital for Chiron and Prime Minister Minahan Beagin the Palestinian question was settled they could now proceed with their secret objective of transforming Lebanon the multiffaith country would become a Christian state led by the Maronite minority this new Lebanon would be a powerful state and above all an ally [Music] but their plans would unknowingly awaken another Lebanese community the largest in the country the Shiite community the Shiers at one time lived quietly in the south of Lebanon they became politicized when their Palestinian neighbors attacked Israel and the Israelis bombed them in return settled mainly in the east and in the south of Lebanon the Shiites had suffered directly from the invasion and Israeli occupation some resolved to take up arms and resist [Music] it was my belief in 1982 that Israel was an enemy and I supported the Palestinian cause i considered myself to be on their side naim Kessim was then 29 years old a chemistry teacher in Beirut he was leader of the Union of Islamist Educational Associations a Shiite organization [Music] for us the thinking of Imam Humeni chimed perfectly with our deep [Music] beliefs so we got together with some other Islamist groups and came to an [Music] agreement we went to Iran to proclaim our willingness to pledge allegiance to Imam Kmeni allowing him to be our guide and respect his authority and he gave us his [Music] blessing homini welcomed the offer of their service it would allow him to get closer to the Jewish state and to better fight it through these new allies it was an obvious union given his old and deep ties with the Lebanese Shiites many of the leaders of revolution in Iran who became at top positions after victory of revolution they had very good background in in Lebanon before revolution good connection with Shia people in Lebanon [Applause] [Music] you know sheism in south of Lebanon is older than Shiism in Iran [Music] in the summer of 1982 Lebanese Shia leaders gathered in the city of Balbeck in the Becca plane located in the east of the country to set up a new organization to fight Israel with the backing of Hmeni it called itself the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon [Music] it officially took the name Hezbollah three years later in 1985 initially though its goals were mostly operational and secret at the outset our resistance movement had to remain underground in order to be effective and grow so confidentiality was the rule we had to act secretly so that we could exist politically later on [Applause] [Music] it was the only way to protect ourselves and give us a chance to [Applause] [Music] expand hezbollah's initial objectives were military it was not only about offering armed resistance against the Israelis rather to end the occupation by any means necessary and drive them out of Lebanon to help the new organization Iran sent a few hundred revolutionary guards to the Becca during the summer of 1982 these men were part of the elite body created at the birth of the Islamic Republic and charged with its defense reporting directly to the Supreme Leader they formed the regime's Ptorian Guard we the Lebanese or the Palestinians did not ask Iran either the Revolutionary Guard or anyone else to fight Israel in our place we were asking for help that's all because at the time the liberating forces fighting Israel had no support [Music] while these elite soldiers did not actually fight they supplied weapons money and knowhow their presence also implicated another country whose army had a presence in this part of Lebanon Syria to reach the Becca the men thus benefited from the help of dictator Hes al-Assad another fervent opponent of the state of Israel by sending his Pazdaran Hmeni was establishing what would prove to be a strategic alliance for many decades to come the partnership with Syria they began organizing the Hezbollah they began organizing uh an alliance with uh Assad they began selling uh giving away oil to Assad to buy a relationship with Assad because they began to think about what they call their strategic depth they wanted to have tools at their disposal to threaten Israel with which meant threaten the United States with and say if you hit us we can hit you back and then by creating the Hezbollah they hit both the US Israelis and the United States in Lebanon i don't know if they knew from the outset that this would become the most their most successful venture but I think these were the objectives that were there from the beginning from the very beginning I think the objective has not been to permanently have Hezbollah as a substate actor but in fact help them transition to become a political party and become a dominant but nevertheless a Lebanese force what took root in the confines of the Becca plane was a veritable system of alliances [Music] a system set up by Iran with the help of Syria a system that created an unknown political entity Hezbollah a system which would later give rise to the powerful Iran Syria Hezbollah axis in the Middle East but for the moment nobody was aware of the emergence of this system least of all the Americans and [Music] Israelis de Canon southern Lebanon about 10 km from the Israeli border at around 6:30 a.m a white pujo stuffed with explosives leaves the village heading towards Tyer the largest town in the region at the wheel is a young 18-year-old resistance fighter and member of Hezbollah his name is Ahmad Kasir ahmed M ahmad Kasir kept a low profile from a young age but he was always virtuous and could never keep silent or compromise in the face of injustice he lived in Saudi Arabia but returned directly to Lebanon after the Israeli invasion our paternal uncle tried to hold him back telling him that he had no business there in time of war but his reply was "I know very well what I must do." [Music] Within a matter of moments in the Shiites struggle against Israel this unknown young man would become a legendary hero what is known here as a Shahid a martyr of the resistance he was about to commit a bold act that had no precedent in Lebanon one that was both religious and political [Music] in 1982 it was thought that the confrontation with Israel was inospicious for us we had no way of striking back against them we needed to take a creative initiative commit an atypical act an act of martyrdom [Music] the cult of martyrs dates back to the origins of Shiism in the 7th century Imam Hussein and his companions were massacred in Carbala in present- day Iraq during a faticidal fight to succeed the prophet Muhammad the event commemorated each year is the very foundation of Shiism this prediliction to sacrifice this ability to fight injustice and corruption is part of Shiite thinking it was central to the mobilization of the Shiites in Lebanon it is not a simple military question rather part of a doctrine a vision the aim was to fight the occupation but the martyrdom operations were also a new form of struggle previously unheard of in the region 7:00 a.m november 11th 1982 amed Casier drives along the main thoroughfare through tire without hesitation he accelerates and hurls himself and his vehicle into a large residential complex [Music] the Israeli military headquarters for the whole of southern Lebanon had just collapsed the sevenstory building was demolished [Music] [Music] i was in Tire at the time we had a grocery store there i was on my way back following my usual route but the Jews had blocked the road i'll never forget the fire was still blazing the building the masonry everything was on fire we were proud something was finally [Music] happening the invader had suffered losses there were fatalities we were pleased about that we wondered who could have dared to do such a thing i did not know then that my brother Ahmad had become a martyr i will never forget that [Music] moment it was carnage 91 Israeli soldiers and 15 Lebanese prisoners were killed ariel Chiron was mystified how could something like this occur when the only known enemy the PLO had been crushed more than two months ago [Music] [Music] three weeks later the commission of inquiry concluded that a gas pipe had exploded declaring the incident to have been an accident this mindblowing version of events was never officially questioned further emphasizing the blindness of Israeli intelligence services oblivious to what was going on in the Becca plane we didn't have information in real time it was very unfortunate in retrospect we knew that some clerics were planning action some we knew others we didn't know who they were [Music] [Music] i was in for a far greater shock when I began to conduct some research into what was known within intelligence circles about the Shiites in [Music] Lebanon i was very disappointed i found almost nothing zero paperwork on the subject there wasn't much in the academic departments either very little [Music] information the multinational force in Lebanon led by the Americans and French was as blind as the Israeli military on October 23rd 1983 almost a year later it was their turn to suffer a similar attack of unprecedented violence the two-tonon bomb devastated the four-story building in which 200 Marines may have been sleeping when the explosion occurred shortly after 6:00 a.m beirut time the Americans lost 241 soldiers at the same time a suicide bomber blew himself up in the French military headquarters the Draar building 58 were killed a double strike claimed by a mysterious Islamic jihad movement almost certainly a figurehead for Hezbollah and Iran i think there there is much that indicates that the Iranians did have a role if not a very important role in that do you have any indication about responsibility yes we have some but we're not going to point the finger until we're absolutely certain but I think the thing that does come through loud and clear is the just the insidious nature of terror international terror the US intelligence says that they had managed to bug a meeting in which uh the Iranian ambassador to Syria who was a leading creator of Hezbollah uh had explicitly asked for such an operation now the US intelligence has not made that evidence public um the US intelligence has been wrong in the past the US intelligence has also lied in the past so we we don't know 100% for certain at the end of the day perception is reality the United States France and other countries have acted on the perception that the Iranians were behind it with this new attack the Hezbollah Shiites could no longer be ignored they saw themselves as the embodiment of the resistance movement against Israel and its allies day by day their following [Music] grows thanks to their protector and benefactor Iran and the support of their capital Balbeck their fight had just begun in earnest intelligence experts have long regarded the city of Balbeck in Lebanon's Becca Valley as a center of anti-American terrorism i recall uh Hisbala seeming to be a domestic factor and then by the mid 1980s it was clear that there was this pipeline um arms material men uh coming from Iran u hostages going uh from Lebanon to Iran uh and political support um so this was an emerging phenomenon from the start the Iranians were smart enough to understand that you cannot create an armed militia without the support of the local population the Iranians have constructed what I call a counter society alongside ordinary Lebanese society there's another society hezbollah society works like this a child is born he goes to Hezbollah nursery then he goes to Hezbollah school then he joins the Hezbollah scouts after that he attends a Hezbollah high school then he joins [Music] [Music] Hezbollah the Israelis were counting 600 men dead in 2 years it was a price many were not prepared to pay [Music] the Israeli army was increasingly becoming bogged down in Lebanon on June 6th 1985 3 years after the start of the invasion the Israeli army pulled out preserving a security zone in the south an area representing 10% of Lebanese territory the Israeli army remained there for 15 years until 2000 for Israel this first partial withdrawal constituted a severe even humiliating defeat for Hezbollah it was a first victory the Shiite organization chose the moment to claim responsibility for the destruction of the Israeli headquarters entire the name of the Shahed Ahmed Kasier was also revealed november 11th the day of the attack became the official martyr's day for the resistance movement [Music] by the time Ayatollah Hummeni passed away in June 1989 his legacy was more alive than ever [Music] the Shiite theocracy which he founded 10 years earlier had been firmly established and the fight he initiated against Israel and the United States through Hezbollah had changed the landscape in the Middle East but moving forward what would his successors do with his legacy heat heat [Music] february 27th 1991 the American army has just inflicted a bloody defeat on Iraq following the invasion of Kuwait 7 months earlier although the big winner in this first Gulf War little did Washington know that it had triggered a process in Iran that would soon shake up the entire Middle East kuwait is liberated iraq's army is defeated our military objectives are met for President George Bush the liberation of Kuwait was only the first stage of a much more ambitious policy he wanted to build a new Middle East a moderate Republican World War II veteran former CIA director and vice president of the United States he was the most powerful head of state in a world that was becoming increasingly uniolar following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakdown of the Soviet Union after the victory in Iraq he sought to make the Persian Gulf whose oil wealth made it a particularly strategic region more secure for American interests [Music] but to achieve his goal Bush first needed to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict threatening the stability of the entire Middle East the process was launched with a peace conference in Madrid madrid was designed to break the taboo on direct Arab-Israeli talks that's what it was designed to do now we created a bilateral channel for negotiation between Israel and a Jordanian Palestinian delegation Israel in Syria Israel and Lebanon and we created a multi-ateral channel which was to bring was to widen the Arab orbit dealing with Israel in his efforts to impose his PAX Americana on the Gulf President Bush invited anyone with any potential influence on the Arab-Israeli conflict Europeans Soviets leaders of the Mcgreb and the Middle East all attended only one country was missing the Islamic Republic of Iran the visceral answer for why Iran was not invited is the hangover from the hostage taking it's still with us today hatred of Iran for the 1979 hostage taking that is behind US policy today more than anybody thinks or believes it's a part of every moment of every thought about Iran at the time uh consideration was given to uh making the conference as universal as possible um but I can't recall that any thought was given to inviting the [Music] Iranians united States was the sole superpower the big Satan and the conference was going to involve making peace with the little Satan with Israel so I think Iran was implacably opposed to the very idea of the conference and it had really nothing to do with the fact that there was no effort to involve them in the conference in Thran the new Iranian leaders did not accept their country being outlawed since Hmeni's death in 1989 two figures in the Islamic Revolution had ruled the country ayatollah Ali Hamemeni was the new supreme leader a loyal follower of his predecessor he was unbending in his refusal to compromise hashem Raf Sanjani was president of the republic a very wealthy businessman he too was very close to the former supreme leader he was a pragmatist and a realist both opted for benevolent neutrality towards the Americans during the Gulf War the Iranians did help the United States against Saddam Hussein um in that war they open up a channel communication they allowed the US to use Iranian airspace the Iranians did this as a way of quietly supporting the United States and they thought that after the war they would be rewarded for it and the reward would just be inclusion [Music] most importantly the bankrupt and devastated Islamic Republic desperately needed to emerge from its isolation iran was still reeling from the interminable war against Iraq between 1980 and 1988 a devastating conflict that left 500,000 dead and deeply traumatized the country the regime almost collapsed moving forward as well as protecting its borders Iran desperately needed to modernize rafanjani's priority was rebuilding because he thought and I think he was right the most important thing is rebuilding the ravage economy so he began uh normalizing relations with anyone who he could he began talking about normalizing relations even with the United States that time there were two school of thought in Iran one was saying don't trust Americans they are cheating they are lying and they would deceive you and the other like Rafan John himself said we are not going to lose anything we would show our goodwill if they don't then everybody in this country and beyond they would know Americans are the guilty part not the Iranians for Iranian leaders the Madrid conference was proof that the Americans were in no way seeking a thaw in relations would this PAX Americana based on Arab-Israeli reconciliation be turned against them and their interests i think a conclusion they may have drawn from uh the failure to be included in Madrid is not just that they may not be able to trust the US i don't think they had much trust to begin with i think it's a conclusion that they drew that if they're not problematic enough they will be ignored if they have the power to be able to show that they can create problems then the US would have to deal with them ayatollah Himei decided to act two weeks before Madrid he organized his own conference dedicated to supporting Palestine it was a conference whose philosophy and program were radically opposed to the American project the Tehran conference is aimed at finding ways of bolstering the Palestinian arms struggle for the Iranians and Muslim delegates who have converged here from around the world believe that Palestinians will only win their rights by fighting for them [Music] the Supreme Leader managed to bring together the representatives of some 60 movements from very diverse ideological or religious backgrounds in attendance were revolutionaries nationalists and Islamists [Music] all expressed a rejection of American domination in the Middle East rejection of the occupation of Palestine and rejection of the state of Israel we found that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were the organizations most inclined to maintain resistance and continue the struggle against Israel [Music] we knew that the liberation of Palestine could only be achieved through resistance negotiations or compromises would not lead to liberation rather to the confiscation of a large part of Palestinian land so we began to support Hamas and Islamic jihad here behind the scenes at the conference close links between the Lebanese Hezbollah the Palestinian Islamist Hamas and the Islamic Jihad began to be forged giving rise to what Thrron would later call the axis of resistance this axis very quickly became a target for the United States and Israel [Music] the Shiite community in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital was in mourning at least 50,000 were there to mourn the death of their leader shik Abbas Mousawi the secretary general of Hezbollah recently seen at the Tehran conference had died the previous day along with his wife and son killed by the Israeli army israel had never before eliminated such a prominent leader within the Shiite organization [Music] there's no question that our capacity to defend ourselves and their capacity to attack us uh have changed dramatically we will be able to defend ourselves better they will be able to hit us uh not as effectively because the organizing brain uh has been uh removed what happened in early 1992 faced with the kidnapping of its soldiers in southern Lebanon Israel decided to seize key members of Hezbollah to carry out a prisoner swap shik Mousawi was a prime [Music] target on February 16th military intelligence was informed that the Shiite leader was about to drive to a village in southern Lebanon to attend a ceremony they decided to have him followed by surveillance drones he was on his way to the village we had all the information so we knew exactly how many cars he was traveling with the distance between each car and who was with him on this February 16th early in the afternoon Mousawi arrived as scheduled at the ceremony but he had no idea that his every move was being closely monitored in real time by the Israeli [Music] services we knew we had high level information which would allow us to strike at our objective mousawi there was no need to wait three or four months and I said as much to the chief of staff rather than kidnapping Mousawi Yuri Sagi advocated eliminating him another opportunity was unlikely to arise for a long time now was the time to strike a helicopter took off with orders to kill the Shiite leader as soon as he left the ceremony prime Minister Shamir was asleep he slept in the afternoon so he was out of the loop 2 minutes beforehand we told him we were going to kill someone he asked "Is he a bastard?" "Yeah he's a little bastard." "Well that's fine then." Shortly before 400 p.m Mousawi's Mercedes was engulfed in flames the chic his wife and son were killed instantly the Israeli army appeared to have gained the upper hand over Hezbollah law from an intelligence point of view the strike was unquestionably a success but from a strategic point of view it was a disaster taking a decision like that there is no word for it it's actually quite pathetic before his elimination there was no discussion about whether or not we should do it and what the consequences might be everyone agreed but no one considered the consequences of the action i told them Look it may provoke a terrorist attack overseas there may be consequences i was told no no no [Music] [Music] a month later on March 17th 1992 a car bomb exploded in the front of the Israeli embassy in Argentina 28 people were killed with 250 [Music] injured islamic jihad claimed responsibility for the attack but in Israel many saw it as a direct response from Hezbollah and Thran to Misawi's assassination i can't speak for anyone else but I had misgivings about the whole thing did I know what we were doing had I properly assessed the risk benefit ratio given that the elimination of Mousawi had led to dozens of Jews killed in Argentina perhaps the Shia devil had become even more fearsome make no mistake they didn't want peace but sometimes you can hasten things when you don't intend to it was decisive it initiated something new in our relationship with Hezbollah and in our relationship with Iran iran because in actual fact we had directly affected Iran israeli intelligence then learned that the situation might get even worse in addition to using Hezbollah Iran also had plans to develop nuclear weapons if Israel failed to react it was no exaggeration to think that the country's very existence might be at stake israel was first in the 1990s to discover that Iran was planning to develop nuclear weapons it was all taking shape at that time and we were the first to pick up on it it took American intelligence another two years even though we had evidence then the Europeans realized it but only in the 2000s one man was determined to thwart this threat the new Israeli Prime Minister Yeitzk Rabbin when he came to power in June 1992 a few weeks after the attack in Argentina he was already part of Israel's history born in British mandate Palestine Rabin was a veteran of the War of Independence in 1948 later becoming a general he was the great winner of the Six-Day War in June 1967 which gave the Israelis control over East Jerusalem the West Bank Gaza and the Golden Heights faced with the prospect of an Iranian bomb Rabin implemented a strategic revolution israel had to reach an understanding with the Palestinians if the Palestinians kept quiet it would be easier for Israel to protect itself from Iran he realized that to tackle the situation he had to significantly reduce the level of instability and violence in the region that called for an Israeli Palestinian initiative this wasn't out of any affection for the Palestinians or the desire to give them more territory but he understood that it would help guarantee the existence identity and security of the state of Israel rabin not us in the intelligence services said we must hurry to reach a peace agreement with the Arab countries and move forward on the Palestinian issue before the Iranians develop nuclear weapons it was a historic and enduring image after months of secret negotiations former warlord Rabine agreed to conclude the Oslo Accords at the White House with the man he had always called a terrorist PLO leader Yaser Arafat for the first time since the creation of the state of Israel a genuine peace process was beginning between the Israelis and Palestinians the children of Abraham the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael have embarked together on a bold journey together today with all our hearts and all our souls we bid them shalom salam peace as he shook hands with Arafat Rabbine was also thinking of Iran the country he would be able to better protect himself from now that peace with the Palestinians had become possible three weeks later however a bus exploded near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank responsibility was claimed by Hamas then it was the turn of an Israeli settler to commit a massacre in Habbron in Israel and the occupied territories tragedies followed one after the other extremists from every side were doing their level best to thwart the peace process it was a godsend for Thran it was time to get back into the game and defeat Israel's strategy [Music] iran has never been in the favor of peace process i tell you very openly very frankly very sincerely because from the day one Iran believed Israel is after cheating and Israel is not ready to accept the rights of Palestinians iran was convinced from the day one and since 100% was convinced this is a plot to kill the time and to kill the wishes and the dreams and the rights of Palestinians iran was not ready to accept [Music] it above all for Hamini the success of the Oslo Accord signaled the victory of a regional order dominated by the United States and Israel that had finally rid itself of the Palestinian question a regional order that would relegate Iran to a supporting role so to reestablish his country at the center of the chess board the Supreme Leader decided that the covenant sealed during the Thrron Conference of October 1991 must be translated into action to that end it stepped up support for the Palestinian Islamist movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad the Iranians support all those who are against us we see their influence in the Gaza Strip and in Judea or in Samaria they work behind the scenes providing financial political and social support even supplying the ammunition used in attacks we knew at critical moments in the in the asso process the Iranians were encouraging pushing rewarding incentivizing acts of of bombings against the Israelis we knew it uh we had the information we had information where they were promising Hamas and Islamic Jihad if they would kill this many Israelis they would get so much money if they would kill twice as many they would get even more money iran is responsible with the other extreme Islamic groups for the setup of international terror and in addition Iran tries to build military capability conventional and nonconventional the spectre of an Iran armed with weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them haunts not only Israel but the entire Middle East and ultimately all the rest of us as well the United States and I believe all the Western nations have an overriding interest in containing the threat posed by Iran to prevent Iran from financing terrorism and developing nuclear weapons Washington imposed economic sanctions the prelude to a total embargo with the aim of isolating the country to bring it to its knees and render it harmless thank you all however it would not be Tyrron behind the tragedy that was soon to strike at the very heart of the United States a tragedy whose symbolic and political significance would usher in a new era for the entire Middle East [Music] it was the most deadly and spectacular attack in the history of terrorism [Music] with nearly 3,000 casualties it was dawning on an astonished United States that the real enemy may not be the Shia Islamism of Iran and Hezbollah rather the Sunni radicalism embodied by al-Qaeda and its Saudi leader Osama bin Laden president George W bush elected the previous year had no choice but to react we will not only deal with the those who dare attack America we will we will deal with those who harbor them and feed them and house them make no mistake about it underneath our underneath our tears is the strong determination of America to win this war and we will win it [Music] devoid of any international experience a fervent evangelical Christian the president had surrounded himself with neoconservatives such as Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld they declared that the United States was on a mission to defend American values to be ready to intervene wherever necessary anywhere in the world september 11th was a wakeup call a call to arms i think the rest of the world and even many in the states underestimate just how traumatic 9/11 was you know the fact of the matter is it's this great trauma and for the administration it's a shock it's a complete shock uh and the effect of the shock is to think if this could happen what else could happen after 9/11 Bush acquires a he he finds his voice he finds his mission uh he finds his he he has a built-in sense of confidence as a result he knows why he's president the president fixed an objective to overthrow the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that for many years had hosted supported and funded al-Qaeda secretary of State Colin Powell was head of American diplomacy and tasked with preparing the ground before the offensive a former chief of state during the first Gulf War and not a member of the neoconservative faction he understood that his country needed to act with the help of a very unexpected partner i was asked by uh Colon Powell the Secretary of State to take on the responsibilities uh initially for working with the Iranian opposition um to form a a successor government to the Taliban i recognized that uh I needed to talk to the countries that had been supporting the the Afghan opposition i made clear that I thought I needed to talk to Iran um as part of my responsibilities and Colon Pal agreed iran seeking help from Thrron sworn enemy of the United States as well as sharing nearly a thousand kilometer long border with Afghanistan the Islamic Republic was the ideal ally to bring down the Taliban regime taliban was an anti-Iranian anti-Semre group it had victimized uh the Hzara the Shia minority in Afghanistan [Music] the Iranians themselves almost went to war with Afghanistan in 1998 after the Taliban struck the Iranian consulate in Mazer Sharif and killed roughly 10 Iranian diplomats and a journalist so the Iranians have deep animosity and enmity with the Taliban there was a coincidence of interest it wasn't that they needed anything more to cooperate they were cooperating for the obvious reason that we had a similar set of objectives the first American bombardments fell on Afghanistan on October 7th 2001 operation Enduring Freedom had just begun [Music] a month later the Northern Alliance the main coalition opposing the Taliban took Kabul with the help of American troops backed and assisted by Iran [Music] the US entered Afghanistan only because of Iranian Revolutionary Guard support because the all northern alliance groups they were working with Iranian Revolutionary Guard but the Bush administration considered it to be of secondary importance for them the defeat of the Taliban was first and foremost a demonstration of US military might the pressing concern now was to build the Afghanistan of tomorrow in early December 2001 an international conference chaired by Washington got underway in Bon bringing together all the Afghan factions um the main issue is the an interim administration and how to distribute the portfolios within that among the various groups geographically ethnically etc i mean it's a this is a tough tough issue like any building any coalition is here again Tyrron sought to play a central role and it was Iranian delegate Muhammad Zarif who managed to obtain a compromise from the Afghan factions for the establishment of an interim government as well as the wording of a final declaration i was reading this document and Zarif uh said that he thought it was a good document but it had a couple of items that were missing and he said "Well first of all there's no mention of uh democracy or free elections don't you think we should be committing the Afghans to democratic uh government?" And I readily agreed well it makes no mention of international terrorism shouldn't they be committing to cooperate against international terrorism and again I I thought that was an innocent that was a uh that was a unobjectionable uh addition and I agreed um I saw that uh Zarif was uh uh had a certain twinkle in his eye and although these were sincere enough probably as proposals they were also intended as a sort of an effort to tease me a bit that I that it would be Iran that was proposing democracy and counterterrorism not the United States iran was jubilant 10 years on they had avenged their ban from the Madrid Conference proving that given the opportunity they could play a stabilizing role on the international scene proving also that they did not deserve the sanctions weighing down their economy the Iranians uh told me they were interested in a broader dialogue i said I wasn't authorized to talk about anything but Afghanistan but that I would pass their interest along summary of my discussion the message went nowhere in post 911 America the advantage was firmly with the neoconservatives that is to say Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld for whom the collaboration with Iran was only a tactical and thus temporary arrangement dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld took over the process stronger every time a run would be a policy agenda item on the National Security Council's list Dick Cheney would make sure it came off so by making the system dysfunctional and by not having a discussion on Iran there never was the decision was by default we don't talk to evil which is what Dick Cheney said mr speaker the President of the United States the devil then was Iran but it was also North Korea and especially Saddam Hussein's Iraq thank you very much states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil arming to threaten the peace of the world by seeking weapons of mass destruction these regimes pose a grave and growing danger the United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons with his axis of evil speech Bush definitively closed the door on any reproachment with Iran here then was the new foreign policy he intended to impose on the Middle East the war on terror was the new mantra the aim was to remove by force any regime that was not supportive in order to replace it with a government that could be relied upon there's an irony here terror is an instrument it's a means it's not an ideology there may be an ideology that uses employs terror and maybe you have to have a war in that ideology but a war on terror doesn't make sense the administration I think rationalized that by saying it's a war on those who support terror and so we will not Bush said we will not draw a distinction between those who carry out acts of terror and those who in some way uh provide a kind of sanctuary for it starting with Iraq moving on to Syria moving on to Iran maybe Lebanon maybe Egypt the whole region needed to be in turmoil because if it were in turmoil Persians Arabs whatever then it could not coalesce it could not unify and attack Israel [Music] so their whole philosophy was the best security for Israel is chaos all around Israel which is counterintuitive if you think about it hard but that's what they wanted i heard it briefed a number of times they wanted chaos [Music] [Applause] [Music] thus by May 1st 2003 the first objective had been achieved by crushing Saddam Hussein's regime Bush Jr put an end to the campaign initiated by his father in 1991 during the first Gulf War he could wallow in victory among his soldiers nothing it seemed could stand in his way obviously when the United States invaded Afghanistan and then invaded Iraq under false pretenses and uh after lying about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and lying about uh a relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda the Iranians were concerned that the United States would try to destabilize Iran or invade the [Music] country so ever since the invasion of Iraq Iran has been preparing itself for some sort of American attack or invasion or any some sort of conflict with the United States [Music] 3 days after the American victory in Iraq Thrron took a staggering initiative an initiative with the potential to change everything in the Middle East at the State Department in Washington a fax arrived via an intermediary Tim Goldman the Swiss ambassador in Thrron he had been representing the interests of the United States in Iran since the closure of their embassy in 1979 the document seemed barely credible it proposed talks on the links with Hamas and Islamic Jihad the disarmament of Hezbollah law and weapons of mass destruction in return Iran sought the lifting of sanctions recognition of its role in the region and access to Western technologies in particular civilian nuclear power washington pondered the implications why would the Supreme Leader until now so inflexible suddenly support such a move i think there were people in the Iranian system that had come to the conclusion that the small steps had not led to anything and that the only way to break the deadlock was to do something big comprehensive and I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what that would be had floated those ideas had created some political readiness in Tehran for it but at the state department where the collaboration with Iran on Afghanistan had been established lished nobody was prepared to take the document transmitted by the Swiss diplomat seriously i do remember that fact it came to Secretary Pal and to me a copy about the same time we discussed it our general view at the time was the Swiss ambassador who are protecting power in Thran the Swiss ambassador was known by us to be somewhat optimistic about the ability to resolve these problems our view was that we had some skepticism about this i think there was also a general view that I mean this was the sort of height of American hubris we just uh over overthrown first the Taliban and then Saddam Hussein out of now let's make a democratic Iraq and then the Iranians will really you know either collapse or um or make even better offers um so it was a feeling that the American leverage was increasing and that there was no hurry us policy towards Iran has always had a strong element of continuity and the Iranians in the past have seen or had seen that every time they came to the assistance of the United States the the response by the United States was a slap in the face so while the impact in Iran or the response in Iran was mixed some were shocked some were not so shocked some were not surprised but ultimately what it did bring about was a consensus in Iran that the United States is very hypocritical and insincere in its dealings with Iran after their exclusion from the Madrid conference and the discourse on the axis of evil for Tyrron this new refusal to engage in dialogue was proof that Washington was still bent on affecting a change of regime in Iran so in order to protect the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khamei took a radical decision he decided to intensify and press ahead with the uranium enrichment program and in doing so acquire nuclear weapons as soon as possible [Music] today I want to extend my very best wishes to all who are celebrating nor around the world and I hope that you enjoy this special time of year with friends and family then one man decided to shift the equation in relations between his country and Iran barely 3 months after taking office Barack Obama addressed Iran directly on the occasion of the Persian New Year it was a first in the history of the two countries we know that you are a great civilization and your accomplishments have earned the respect of the United States and the world the new president was the antithesis of his predecessor a staunch Democrat opposed to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 he believed in multilateralism and in the force of diplomacy to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons he also believed that Israel should be prevented from ever attacking Thrron if that happened the entire Middle East would sink into chaos it is clear at least from every the priority that the president gave to Iran that he did feel this was a national security issue he did feel that Iran with a nuclear bomb was a threat to the region perhaps to to Europe to the US we wanted to provide Iran a dignified exit um and a way to come back into compliance with the rules that everybody else was living by iran wasn't um and uh diplomacy was part of that strategy it wasn't the only element of that strategy it was a multi-dimensional strategy that we had uh which included various forms of pressure uh it included um military uh planning president Obama was also very clear uh from the beginning of his time in office that he was ready to use all tools at his disposal to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon he used this phrase often all options are on the table and what everybody knew that to mean was that he was willing to take military action if the situation required it to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon but Benjamin Netanyahu was skeptical about Obama's military option in the event of negotiations failing in his eyes the American president knew nothing about the Middle East while he himself was an experienced leader coming from a very conservative Zionist background and the former head of an elite commando unit he had already led the country 10 years earlier netanyahu had never wavered in his refusal to compromise on Israel security he declared himself ready to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities without Washington's consent israel was quite prepared to act without American backing they have never concealed their opposition to an operation like this they regarded it as damaging but I remember face-to-face discussions with Bush and Obama or with their security advisers who were taking notes i clearly told them that when we reached a critical stage in terms of the security and future of the state of Israel and the Jewish people we would not delegate responsibility to anyone else not even to you our closest allies we would not give them that we would take our decisions in full sovereignty according to our own considerations for Netanyahu and Ahud Barack then military intervention was the only sure way to prevent Iran from acquiring the bomb but before they took action they needed the approval of key ministers and leading military and intelligence officials to be legitimate it was imperative that the historic decision to attack Iran met with a broad consensus i thought the military option was wrong not because it was technically impossible but because there was no American consensus we didn't have their support even if we managed to destroy certain facilities it would not solve the problem it would merely dismantle the coalition established by Obama israel did not have the capacity to eliminate this threat completely the process could be delayed or weakened but as I pointed out the situation could end up worse you might hasten something over which you have no control outnumbered the two Israeli leaders were forced to back down obama however remained uneasy if he was to get a deal with Iran before Netanyahu could convince his cabinet to follow him down the road to war he needed to wrestle back control strong bipartisan support at the end of 2012 in the utmost secrecy he entered into direct negotiations with Iran a succession of meetings both in and out of public eye ensued an agreement was on the way thus on March 3rd 2015 Netanyahu made one final attempt to derail the process he went to Washington to address Congress where he launched into a veritable tirade against the policies of his most loyal ally it was unprecedented in the history of relations between the two countries ladies and gentlemen I've come here today to tell you we don't have to bet the security of the world on the hope that Iran will change for the better we don't have to gamble with our future and with our children's future so this deal won't change Iran for the better it will only change the Middle East for the worse we were physically with the Iranians and we watched the speech with the with members of the Iranian delegation so I'm not saying that it was the the the focal point of of for for days of discussions but it was obviously a topic of conversation which is Israel's opposition to the deal the fact that that Prime Minister has every right to criticize to to say it's the wrong thing he could say it publicly but to come to the center of uh of American the political body and to speak out in this way that was quite [Music] extraordinary but the Israeli leader maneuver proved to be futile and his speech changed nothing obama won the day [Music] four months later on July 14th 2015 the nuclear agreement was signed thrron was represented by its minister of foreign affairs a certain Muhammad Zarif the man who had cooperated with the United States against the Taliban in 2001 i believe this is a historic moment we are reaching an agreement that is not perfect for anybody but it is what we could accomplish and it is an important achievement for all of us today could have been the end of hope on this issue but now we are starting a new chapter of hope iran pledged to limit its uranium enrichment program to the production of civilian energy and abandon its quest for nuclear weapons in return it would obtain the gradual lifting of sanctions that were stifling its economy [Music] [Applause] for the vast majority of Iranians the agreement was a beacon of hope their country was finally ready to join the global community for Netanyahu it was a disaster strengthened and legitimized the Islamic Republic was now inescapable in the Middle East israel was more isolated than ever but this new dynamic between Iran and the United States would prove to be short-lived if we do nothing we know exactly what will happen in just a short period of time the world's leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world's most dangerous weapons therefore I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal this decision by President Trump marked the beginning of a new phase in the long history of relations between Iran on the one side and the United States and Israel on the other since the advent of the Islamic Republic in 1979 war has never actually broken out between Washington and Thrron nor has there been any real dialogue the two enemies have constantly failed to get beyond their different backgrounds to consider each other as valid counterparts for its part Israel perceives Iran as an increasingly radical and deadly threat until the Shia theocracy recognizes the legitimacy of the Jewish state nothing will be possible for over 40 years then a state of war has been the norm for over 40 years a deadly rationale of confrontation a lack of respect for each other's individuality and incitements to hatred have prevailed as if failed relationships should be the rule as if an endless series of obstacles must be conjured up to forever keep dialogue and peace at bay