Behind the Headlines/June 17

With my warm greetings from our Stockholm studios, tonight we will look at the latest news of Iran and the Middle East, including the following top stories:

Attack or an explosion on the two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, while the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been meeting with ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran;

Who and with what objectives has been behind this latest attack on oil tankers in the strategic waterway of the Gulf of Oman,which links to the Persian Gulf?

The fingers of accusations from Washington and some of the countries of the region are pointed at the Iranian regime;

We will also find out if the Abe’s trip to Tehran has achieved any of its objectives.

Our guests tonight are Dr Alireza Nourizadeh and Mr Ghassem Shole Sadee.

Dr Alireza Nourizadeh:

This regime has always played the bogus card of“moderates” and “radicals” for when it commits an act of terrorism.

They killed Dr Bakhtiar and Iranian Kurdish leaders and claimed the rogue elements were behind those murders, but behind the scene they are all one group of criminals who rule over our country.

Khamenei has acted so disgracefully in his meeting with Prime Minister of Japan who is a very decent politician and had tried to convince the regime to abandon its nefarious activities.

But instead of doing so Khamenei has ordered the Revolutionary Guards to attack the oil tankers. The Guards have been the force behind the attacks and to cover up for their action they have pretended that they have been rescuing the crews of the tankers. This regime does not know any boundaries in hypocrisy.

This regime does not understand humanity at all. When it is so savage and repressive against its own people, how could it becaring for the foreign crews of the tankers that minutes earlier it has bombed their vessel?!

Ghassem Shole Sadee:

If the regime of Iran has carried out these attacks on the oil tankers then its decision to do so is based on a new strategy that thinks they must project their power to the US and the world that they can strike at their targets anytime they want and if Iran cannot export its oil no one would be able to do so through this waterway.

Some of the top officials of the regime have clearly stated this strategy in their speeches and comments.

The US has sent misleading signals to the Iranian leaders by sending its naval and military forces to the region, whereas it already has many bases in there that have effectively encircled Iran.

The regime is responding by these actions to say that if there is going to be a war, everyone in the entire region will suffer.