BBCPERSIAN — broadcast
20260920 143000 UTC
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[00:00:24] News headline. Iran's warning
[00:00:27] about a possible US attack with
[00:00:30] support from regional countries. The central headquarters
[00:00:34] of Khatam al-Anbiya threatened Washington's allies with a military response.
[00:00:37] The deepening economic recession in
[00:00:41] Iran, GDP since last spring
[00:00:45] decreased by about 11%.
[00:00:47] The first
[00:00:49] two-month election in Russia after the attack on
[00:00:52] Ukraine, all opponents of the war have been eliminated
[00:00:56] from the competition. Deadly drugs
[00:01:00] on the streets of Scotland raise concerns
[00:01:02] about the spread of a semi- narcotic substance that is hundreds
[00:01:06] of times stronger than heroin.
[00:01:25] Hello and welcome to this news program. In Iran, the central
[00:01:29] headquarters of Khatam al-Anbiya says it has obtained information
[00:01:32] that the US, with the support of some Middle Eastern countries,
[00:01:36] is preparing to resume its attack on Iran. This high military body
[00:01:40] has warned about the consequences of such an attack. It seems
[00:01:43] that developments such as the early return of the US president from
[00:01:47] his vacation and the issuance of security warnings for American citizens
[00:01:51] in West Asian countries are among the factors that
[00:01:54] have increased concerns about the outbreak of conflict.
[00:01:58] Shabnam Majidi reports that under these circumstances, diplomatic
[00:02:02] efforts to end the conflict
[00:02:05] continue.
[00:02:08] Donald Trump cut short his weekend vacation at Camp
[00:02:12] David last night and returned to the White House earlier
[00:02:16] than expected without giving a reason for this decision.
[00:02:19] A number of US embassies in West Asia have also issued
[00:02:22] emergency security warnings and said that there is a possibility
[00:02:26] of flight cancellations in the region. The central
[00:02:38] military installations and interests of that country in the region
[00:02:42] will be targeted by continuous, effective, and painful attacks
[00:02:45] without any restrictions or considerations. These warnings are being issued
[00:02:49] while the Houthis announced yesterday that they attacked sensitive
[00:02:52] targets in Riyadh with missiles and drones. The first retaliatory
[00:02:56] attack by Ansar Allah of Yemen on Riyadh.
[00:03:00] The French news agency says a fuel
[00:03:02] depot of the oil company Aramco near the airport
[00:03:06] caught fire. But Saudi Arabia says it intercepted and destroyed
[00:03:10] the missile fired at Riyadh. Until today, the US
[00:03:13] has avoided direct involvement in this front. But now,
[00:03:17] with threats reaching the capital of Saudi Arabia, new questions
[00:03:20] face this ally of Riyadh.
[00:03:24] The port of Mocha, a strategic point that the Houthis
[00:03:28] have captured for several weeks,
[00:04:00] at the same time, efforts for negotiations are also underway. The Turkish
[00:04:04] foreign minister says that they are working with several other countries
[00:04:08] on new proposals to end the war. The Pakistani interior minister
[00:04:12] is also scheduled to go to Tehran today.
[00:04:14] Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security
[00:04:18] Council, told Al Jazeera Arabic yesterday that Iran's conditions,
[00:04:21] including an end to the war on all fronts, the release of Iranian
[00:04:25] assets, and an end to the naval blockade, have been announced to the US,
[00:04:28] and we are awaiting their response. Mohammad
[00:04:31] Baqer Qalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, also said that the dichotomy
[00:04:35] of war or negotiation is not real, and one must both fight and negotiate,
[00:04:39] and the enemy knows very well that the path
[00:04:42] of deceit and one-sided imposition is closed,
[00:04:46] and until these conditions are met and the
[00:04:49] legitimate rights of the Iranian nation are not recognized,
[00:04:53] and the commitments of the Americans
[00:04:57] are not fulfilled, there will be no opening
[00:05:00] for a return to previous conditions of negotiation
[00:05:03] and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:05:07] And it seems that this waterway, which
[00:05:10] holds the fate of the world economy, will remain closed until then.
[00:05:14] Shabnam Majidi, BBC.
[00:05:16] Shida Hooshmandi,
[00:05:20] our reporter from Washington, is with the program.
[00:05:24] Shida, is it possible that Mr. Trump's sudden return
[00:05:27] could be interpreted as a sign of his desire for war with Iran?
[00:05:30] It seems
[00:05:32] that Jamal, more than anything else, is related to the situation
[00:05:36] between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen. In this way,
[00:05:40] the Houthis, for the first time, as we saw in the report,
[00:05:43] attacked Riyadh and
[00:05:46] the scope of tensions
[00:05:49] has expanded in that point. We know that Bin Salman's
[00:05:52] request from Mr. Trump is to directly engage
[00:05:56] in a military confrontation with the Houthis. We also
[00:05:59] hear reports, especially from CNN, for example,
[00:06:03] that this weekend, Mr. Trump
[00:06:06] was reviewing the options
[00:06:10] for resolving the Houthi issue.
[00:06:12] But I saw another report on Fox News
[00:06:16] where a Fox News reporter interviewed Mr. Trump,
[00:06:20] and he said that in the
[00:06:23] not-so-distant future,
[00:06:26] he would make a decision about Iran. The decisions
[00:06:29] are these, the options are these, according to Mr. Trump:
[00:06:33] Iran will be completely wiped
[00:06:36] out. The second option is that
[00:06:38] it will actually collapse economically.
[00:06:43] And the third option is that they will reach an agreement.
[00:06:45] And finally, it seems that it is true
[00:06:48] that the issue of Iran is not directly involved,
[00:06:52] but it is somehow involved in the war with Iran.
[00:06:56] We have six weeks until the midterm elections. The situation is very
[00:06:59] complicated for Mr. Trump. I saw that Mike Wallace
[00:07:03] spoke with the US government representative at the UN
[00:07:07] on Face the Nation today.
[00:07:09] He was asked about the plan that Mr. Trump has regarding
[00:07:13] the Houthis, and he did not definitively
[00:07:17] say that Mr. Trump would engage in a direct confrontation
[00:07:20] with the Houthis. But he emphasized
[00:07:24] that Mr. Trump would make a firm decision
[00:07:27] in this regard. The issue for Mr. Trump is that if he
[00:07:31] actually waits until after the midterm
[00:07:34] elections to confront the Houthis, the Houthis may be able
[00:07:37] to destabilize the oil and energy markets,
[00:07:41] and this would be bad for Mr. Trump. If he engages
[00:07:44] in a direct confrontation,
[00:07:48] it will definitely increase tensions,
[00:07:51] which is something the Islamic Republic also wants,
[00:07:55] and in the end, it can again be detrimental to Mr. Trump
[00:07:59] on the eve of the midterm elections. We have to see
[00:08:02] what decision the White House will make in the coming
[00:08:06] days. Thank you, Shida Hooshmandi, our reporter in
[00:08:10] Washington. Masoud Safiri, journalist
[00:08:14] and political analyst from Washington, the capital of the United States.
[00:08:17] Mr. Safiri, it's interesting that Shida mentioned the three
[00:08:21] options that Mr. Trump reportedly sees before him:
[00:08:25] the complete elimination of the Iranian government, the economic
[00:08:28] collapse of Iran, or an agreement in accordance
[00:08:31] with American conditions. In your opinion, which option
[00:08:35] do the evidence and signs support?
[00:08:37] I think the Americans have come to the conclusion
[00:08:41] that the more difficult Iran's economic situation, the more
[00:08:44] difficult decision-making will be in Tehran. In fact,
[00:08:47] the final confrontation that will take place in Tehran
[00:08:51] between the two factions ready for negotiations and the faction
[00:08:54] opposed to negotiations, that confrontation
[00:08:58] may get closer. And certainly,
[00:09:01] during that confrontation, the Americans can make more use
[00:09:05] of that fault line of differences, both in negotiations and
[00:09:08] in military operations if they have planned them.
[00:09:19] The Islamic Republic is preparing itself for the second option,
[00:09:23] meaning for a widespread war. Do you
[00:09:26] see the ability in the Iranian government
[00:09:30] to continue, for example,
[00:09:32] now
[00:09:34] what is clear is that Iran's economic situation is very
[00:09:38] difficult, and its opposing
[00:09:40] front is extensive.
[00:09:43] The Islamic Republic fundamentally does not
[00:09:46] consider the people as its social base for a defense
[00:09:50] in a war or a defense
[00:09:53] because it knows that this is a private
[00:09:57] war between itself and the US. The 10% to 15%
[00:10:00] (or whatever number, I don't really know)
[00:10:03] of its social base might defend it
[00:10:06] or come to the field for it, but the rest of the people
[00:10:10] are not in a situation
[00:10:12] where they can even understand why their country
[00:10:16] or their destiny is tied to a war that has no end
[00:10:20] and no reason to continue. In fact, it is not clear
[00:10:23] when the Islamic Republic will be defeated. It is not clear
[00:10:27] whether the moment of the Islamic Republic's collapse will happen on the battlefield,
[00:10:31] in a war, or if it will suffer
[00:10:34] from internal arthritis and its entire
[00:10:37] body will crumble. We know
[00:10:40] that the economic recession in Iran, based on the statistics
[00:10:44] announced today, has passed negative 10%,
[00:10:47] and this makes the economy irreversible.
[00:10:51] Of course, we will also talk about that.
[00:10:55] But ultimately, the American side
[00:10:57] is not in a very
[00:10:59] favorable situation either. Time is passing quickly.
[00:11:03] Elections are approaching, and on this side, Iran's allies, for example, the Houthis,
[00:11:07] have shown their strength against Saudi Arabia
[00:11:11] and the oil market. Yes,
[00:11:14] your analysis and the question you
[00:11:17] raise are completely correct. But we have to see how much
[00:11:21] damage the other side suffers from the war,
[00:11:24] and how vulnerable this side, which is essentially
[00:11:28] saying it is defending itself, is. The important issue is
[00:11:31] resilience. How much resilience does the Iranian political system
[00:11:34] have? How much resilience do the American people have?
[00:11:38] Mr. Trump has a timeframe to win the November
[00:11:42] midterm elections. Almost everyone knows that,
[00:11:45] except for Mr. Clinton's time, the incumbent president in the White House
[00:11:49] does not win the midterm elections. This only happened during Mr. Clinton's time
[00:11:53] when the Democrats were able to
[00:12:00] defeat the Republicans. Therefore, this is actually part of American
[00:12:04] political tradition. But if Mr. Trump gets angry, meaning
[00:12:08] if he actually receives that message and sees that
[00:12:11] he will be pressured in Congress, then he has a timeframe
[00:12:15] from approximately November 7th to January 20th
[00:12:18] when the new members come and sit, and the new composition is announced.
[00:12:22] What will happen in those two and a half months? I absolutely
[00:12:55] less than last spring. The sharp decline in oil production
[00:12:58] and a more than 35% decrease in export revenues
[00:13:01] were the main factors behind the negative economic
[00:13:04] growth. Behrang Tajdin, our economic affairs reporter,
[00:13:08] is here in the studio with me. Behrang, what do the statistics
[00:13:11] say? Look, the quarterly report
[00:13:14] from the Statistical Center is very clearly
[00:13:17] showing that the war between the US and Israel
[00:13:21] and Iran and the
[00:13:24] blockade of the southern ports and the intensification
[00:13:27] of sanctions against Iran have affected Iran's economy.
[00:13:31] As you said, the amount of exports this
[00:13:34] spring was 35.7%
[00:13:38] less than last spring. Look, this is the value
[00:13:42] of the export contracts, it doesn't mean the money
[00:13:46] that came in. Their value was 35%
[00:13:50] less than last year, and the amount of extraction
[00:13:54] or value of oil and gas extracted, despite the increase
[00:13:57] in oil prices, was 26%
[00:13:59] less than last spring. And overall,
[00:14:03] if you look at the total income of the Iranian economy,
[00:14:06] including the government, the private sector, the people, companies,
[00:14:10] all together, it was 10.8% less than last year.
[00:14:14] Inflation is
[00:14:16] also there. You see, when we talk about GDP,
[00:14:20] you can replace the word production with income. The income
[00:14:23] of the Iranian economy was 10% less
[00:14:27] than last spring. And the issue is
[00:14:30] that, with the exception of the agricultural sector,
[00:14:33] which had a slight growth
[00:14:35] of about 2%,
[00:14:38] other industries and mines, for example, if we exclude
[00:14:41] oil and gas, other industries and mines also
[00:14:45] saw a 5% decrease in their production,
[00:14:48] a decrease in their income. The same is true in the service
[00:14:52] sector. So, if you look at different sectors,
[00:14:55] you see that all of them were struggling with recession,
[00:14:59] and the result is that the income of many people
[00:15:03] and companies also decreases, and purchasing power goes down,
[00:15:06] especially with inflation. A final interesting point
[00:15:10] is that if you look at consumption, you see that
[00:15:13] for the government sector, it has decreased
[00:15:17] by 17%. For the private sector, meaning people
[00:15:20] and private companies, it's 4. What does
[00:15:24] that mean? It means a decrease
[00:15:27] in purchasing power and a worsening of poverty
[00:15:30] for people, more than twice as severe as for the government.
[00:15:34] So, what is the overall concept of these? What is the
[00:15:38] economic translation of this for ordinary people
[00:15:42] and their lives? I say the most important
[00:15:45] translation for people is that, ultimately, the entire
[00:15:49] Iranian economy is poorer. The Iranian economy also
[00:15:53] includes its people. So, just think,
[00:15:56] we don't care how much inflation is, because these statistics
[00:15:59] actually remove the effect of inflation. The problem
[00:16:03] is that people's incomes have not increased as much
[00:16:06] as inflation. And one of the ways that people's incomes don't
[00:16:09] increase is that you see that, for example,
[00:16:12] employment has decreased, meaning there are fewer people
[00:16:16] who have income. Well, this itself can,
[00:16:19] in total, mean that, overall, the Iranian people
[00:16:23] and economy are poorer than last year. And
[00:16:27] this is especially true in a situation where inflation
[00:16:30] is at its highest level since World War II,
[00:16:34] in more than 80 years. It shows how difficult life
[00:16:38] is, and the issue is that getting out of this
[00:16:41] crisis has no economic solution. Its solution is political.
[00:16:44] The main solution is to end the war,
[00:16:48] in a way, to end the war and start the return
[00:16:51] of Iran's foreign trade to at least
[00:16:55] pre-war conditions. Now, I can't
[00:16:58] call these conditions normal, but the issue is that
[00:17:01] the continuation of the current situation can cause
[00:17:04] this situation of poverty for the people and the economy
[00:17:08] to last longer. Thank you, Behrang Tajdin. I must remind
[00:17:12] you that in the 60-minute program, we will talk in detail with Behrang
[00:17:16] about this. A look back at the most
[00:17:19] important news headlines of this program. The central
[00:17:23] headquarters of Khatam al-Anbiya warned about a possible attack
[00:17:27] on Iran and threatened that US interests in the region
[00:17:31] would be targeted without any restrictions or considerations.
[00:17:34] Following an 11% decrease in Iran's GDP
[00:17:38] since last spring, the country's economy officially entered a recession.
[00:17:42] In the continuation of this
[00:17:44] program, the worsening drug crisis
[00:17:48] in Scotland with the entry of a deadly substance
[00:17:51] that is hundreds of times stronger than
[00:17:54] heroin.
[00:17:58] Today is the third and final day of voting
[00:18:02] in Russia's parliamentary elections. Elections in which everything
[00:18:06] has been arranged so that the ruling party, United Russia,
[00:18:09] maintains its majority. Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia,
[00:18:13] has described these elections as a test of public support
[00:18:16] for the war in Ukraine. This is while almost all
[00:18:20] anti-war candidates have been barred from participating
[00:18:24] in this competition, including the candidate of the Yabloko
[00:18:27] liberal party, whose name was removed from the ballot
[00:18:30] by a ruling of the Russian Supreme Court. The Kremlin justifies
[00:18:34] these actions by saying that imposing restrictions
[00:18:37] to protect national interests during wartime is necessary.
[00:18:41] Erfan Nourbakhsh, an analyst of Russian affairs from Nottingham,
[00:18:45] UK, is with us. Mr. Nourbakhsh, when it is said that the names
[00:18:48] of war opponents have been crossed out, how is this done? Does
[00:18:52] only the Russian judiciary intervene, or do they also
[00:18:55] have a body similar to the Guardian Council? Yes,
[00:18:58] it's very interesting. Even this Yabloko party
[00:19:02] issue in the previous election did not gain more than 1.5%
[00:19:06] of the votes and was even described by the Kremlin as
[00:19:09] a political corpse. It was in late July that it gained
[00:19:13] a lot of popularity on social media
[00:19:16] by chanting anti-war slogans, calling for
[00:19:20] an immediate agreement, a ceasefire, and
[00:19:24] very easily in August, as you mentioned,
[00:19:27] its candidates were removed, and the party itself
[00:19:31] was removed for
[00:19:34] copyright issues, which was very interesting.
[00:19:38] You see, the Russian system is a system
[00:19:41] where all its components are at the service of the ruling
[00:19:44] elite. This system existed both during the Soviet era
[00:19:48] and during the tsarist rule. It absolutely does not allow
[00:19:52] anything that goes against the ruler
[00:19:55] to rise up. Someone rising up against the ruler means
[00:19:59] the destruction of the ruler, at least in the Russian dictionary.
[00:20:02] Therefore, the judiciary can easily remove
[00:20:06] them with a phone call from the Kremlin.
[00:20:15] There is no need to have a legal process
[00:20:19] to remove them. As I said, this party
[00:20:23] was removed for another reason. There was no
[00:20:26] talk about entering the elections or not entering
[00:20:30] them because of
[00:20:33] peaceful slogans. Therefore, what
[00:20:36] Putin announces, he says these elections are a test
[00:20:40] of support. When you have no other
[00:20:43] option, all options are in favor of the policy
[00:20:47] of the ruling party, and in fact, not to say
[00:20:51] the policy of the ruling party, but of the ruler.
[00:20:55] Talking about elections or a test
[00:20:59] is ridiculous in this situation. In the previous Russian
[00:21:02] presidential elections two years ago, we saw the same
[00:21:06] thing happen. The candidates who were against Mr. Putin
[00:21:09] were happy about their elimination, happy about their defeat.
[00:21:12] We remember we had a program with you then and we discussed
[00:21:16] this. Therefore, in current Russia,
[00:21:19] in Putin's Russia, one cannot hope that anything
[00:21:22] will change through elections. These elections are not that
[00:21:26] important even for the Kremlin. Elections in European countries
[00:21:30] where the Kremlin is intensely and actively interfering
[00:21:33] to bring right-wing parties to power are more important
[00:21:37] to it than these elections. You know, with these elections,
[00:21:41] it will easily perform the show it wants, and then
[00:21:44] the Kremlin's actions will never face internal challenges,
[00:21:48] unless through violence.
[00:22:09] The Iranian parliament, in its ongoing review
[00:22:13] of the bill known as "Combating Foreign Influence," approved
[00:22:16] Article 10 of the bill. Based on this article, the Ministry
[00:22:20] of Interior is obligated to establish a system
[00:22:23] for registering, managing, and supervising foreign communications
[00:22:27] within three months of the implementation of this law. Security agencies,
[00:22:31] including the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC Intelligence Organization,
[00:22:34] will have full access to the information in this system.
[00:22:37] Since the approval of its generalities, this bill has faced
[00:22:41] criticism and opposition, including from the government itself.
[00:22:44] The Iranian
[00:22:46] judiciary announced the sealing of the French Language Center
[00:22:50] in Tehran, known as CILF, and deemed its activities
[00:22:54] illegal. This institution claims
[00:22:57] that this center, which is affiliated with the French
[00:23:00] Embassy, has conducted activities against national security
[00:23:04] under the guise of language teaching and has created
[00:23:08] networks for the departure of Iranian elites. CILF
[00:23:11] in Tehran was the only center for official
[00:23:14] French language proficiency exams, DELF and DALF,
[00:23:18] which are particularly required for applicants
[00:23:22] to study at French-speaking universities.
[00:23:24] A former
[00:23:31] senior Syrian army commander has been arrested on suspicion
[00:23:35] of involvement in human rights violations during Bashar al-Assad's
[00:23:39] rule. According to Syrian officials, Major General Ahmed Mohammad
[00:23:43] Ismail was one of the commanders of military operations in Aleppo,
[00:23:46] Daraa, and Eastern Ghouta during the Syrian civil war.
[00:23:54] Since then, dozens of officials from the former
[00:23:57] government have been arrested,
[00:24:10] The agency responsible for monitoring and combating
[00:24:14] addiction and drug production in the European
[00:24:17] Union has announced the entry of hundreds of new, powerful,
[00:24:21] and dangerous drugs into the continent. At the same time,
[00:24:25] new official statistics expected to be released
[00:24:28] later this week are likely to show
[00:24:31] an increase in the annual death rate due to drug
[00:24:34] use in Scotland. Experts say one of the reasons
[00:24:38] for this trend is the increased production and distribution
[00:24:42] of synthetic opioids. James Cook reports on this.
[00:24:45] The appearance
[00:24:48] of this very clean laboratory in Dundee, in southeast
[00:24:52] Scotland, is miles away from the reality of drug
[00:24:55] abuse. But scientists here are working to combat
[00:24:59] this deadly and ever-changing threat. They examine
[00:25:02] confiscated drug samples to understand exactly
[00:25:06] what is inside them. This is because
[00:25:09] newer drugs are always being produced. The answers from these scientists
[00:25:12] are concerning. We are seeing that approximately
[00:25:16] one new type of drug enters the European market every
[00:25:20] one or two weeks. We have a challenge to keep up with
[00:25:23] the pace of this trend, and this must be dangerous,
[00:25:27] right? Yes, these drugs are extremely dangerous.
[00:25:30] Over time, drug production and distribution in Scotland
[00:25:34] is becoming much more dangerous. These scientists are particularly
[00:25:37] concerned about a synthetic opioid called nitazene,
[00:25:41] which is often hundreds of times stronger than heroin.
[00:25:44] Criminals mix these substances with any other substance,
[00:25:48] from Valium-like pills to cocaine powder. The value
[00:25:52] of drugs seized by Scottish police on the streets of the country
[00:25:56] last year was 80 million pounds. So far this year,
[00:25:59] this figure has reached 78 million pounds. And we can also
[00:26:03] announce now that the police, by raiding laboratories
[00:26:07] suspected of producing nitazene in two regions of Scotland,
[00:26:10] have arrested 5 people so far. This is not just a city
[00:26:14] problem. The rapidly changing nature of drug distribution
[00:26:17] has also reached rural Scotland. We came to the Kintyre peninsula
[00:26:20] in the westernmost part of Scotland to hear stories
[00:26:24] about this community's efforts to save lives. Here,
[00:26:27] every method is used to save people's lives. This group
[00:26:31] tries to help former drug users reconnect
[00:26:34] with nature and heal their trauma
[00:26:38] in this way. Some of these substances are so strong
[00:26:41] that even a small amount is enough to make the person
[00:26:44] lose control of their body and take their life, right?
[00:26:48] Yes, it will probably even kill them. It's really
[00:26:51] scary. I usually don't say such things, but I don't
[00:26:55] think drugs have ever been this dangerous before. Now,
[00:26:59] people almost never know what they are consuming.
[00:27:13] Many
[00:27:16] lives have been lost, and much more work needs
[00:27:20] to be done to save
[00:27:21] other lives.
[00:27:27] Thank you for joining our news segments. At the
[00:27:30] end of this news program,
[00:27:34] I remind you again that Mr. Trump is said to be
[00:27:37] making big decisions. He himself told Fox News
[00:27:41] that network. Fox News quoted
[00:27:45] him as saying that big things are happening
[00:27:49] regarding Iran, and before that, the central
[00:27:53] headquarters of Khatam al-Anbiya said that we have received
[00:27:56] information that the US, with the support of some regional
[00:28:00] countries, wants to attack Iran. Thank you for being with
[00:30:39] our news segments. All right. And now on BBC
[00:30:43] Persian Television,
[00:30:46] "Respond mercilessly and go to the extent of killing."
[00:30:50] Amnesty International says its extensive investigation
[00:30:53] into how the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement was suppressed
[00:30:57] can be summarized in this one instruction.