Behind the Headlines/Nov 6

Jamshid Chalangi:

In tonight’s program of Behind the Headlines we will look at the new US sanctions against Iran and will ask how they will affect the economic life of the ordinary Iranians.

Also, we will find out what will happen to Iran’s oil industry and its exports under the new sanctions and how the regime’s renewed terrorist threats will affect its relations with the EU countries.

Our guests to discuss these issues are the former Iranian diplomat Mohammad Reza Heydari and Shervan Fashandi, a member of the opposition group Farashgard.

Mohammad Reza Heydari:

When we look at the history of the Islamic republic regime, we will notice that it has always tried to create an imaginary enemy for itself and the Iranian people to justify its destructive policies at home and abroad.

Ineffectiveness and mismanagement are now institutionalized in the regime and it is only right to say that with the arrival of the new US sanctions the economic conditions of the Iranian people will get much worse.

If there were only a shred of rationality in the minds of the despotic rulers of Iran they would have taken advantage of the Clinton presidency and entered meaningful negotiations with the US to sort out the many contentious issues that have existed between the two countries for long.

However, as the interests of the Islamic republic regime are completely different from those of the Iranian people, this never happened and we are in the disastrous situation of today.

Shervan Fashandi:

The Islamic republic regime and its foreign policies have nothing to do with the interests of the Iranian people as they only pursue their ideological objectives that run contrary to the need of our nation.

The regime is like a destructive virus that has entered the body of our country and continues its life with the oil and gas revenues with the aim of spreading its Shia ideology.

The Revolutionary Guard openly says that they do not belong to Iran and do not recognize any borders for their activities and are representing the Islamic world.

It is impossible for such a regime to accept the 12 US conditions and act as a normal regime.

It is a dictatorial regime that will never change its nature. To expect it will change its behaviour is like expecting a wolf to become a vegetarian!