The Interview Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister: regime change is a futile exercise
Lyse Doucet speaks to Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, about the future of Iran's nuclear programme and its government.
The interview took place in the country's capital Tehran after Iran's twelve-day war with Israel.
Both sides fired missiles into each other's territories, with hundreds killed as military sites were destroyed and civilian infrastructure badly damaged.
Israel first attacked Iran on the 13th of June, claiming Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon. The conflict ended when the United States bombed three of Iran's nuclear sites.
It's worth remembering, before any of the aggression started, talks about the future of Iran's nuclear programme were ongoing with the US. But they were overshadowed by a report from International Atomic Energy Agency declaring Iran was in breach of its nuclear obligations and questioned why Iran was enriching uranium to such high levels.
For now, there's a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
In this interview you'll hear Majid Takht-Ravanchi talk about whether he thinks it will hold and what it will take for diplomacy with the United States to resume in good faith.
Thank you to Lyse Doucet and Charlotte Scarr for their help in making this programme.
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service, Mondays and Wednesdays at 0700 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out twice a week on BBC Sounds, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Lyse Doucet
Producers: Charlotte Scarr and Ben Cooper
Sound: Dave O'Neill
Editor: Nick Holland
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Majid Takht-Ravanchi. Credit: Safin Hamid/AFP via Getty Images)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on food and farming: climate chaos hits crops hard – and that should worry everyone
British farmers are, of course, not the only people who are suffering from the effects of this summer's heatwaves. Across Europe and the Middle East, record-breaking temperatures are threatening lives as well as livelihoods. France has experienced its largest wildfire since 1949, while across Europe an estimated 500,000 hectares of land have burned. But farmers are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather, which has a direct impact on crop yields. So reports of a second consecutive year in which food growers in parts of the UK are seeing dramatic falls in production should concern the British public. Access to food is frequently taken for granted in the world's wealthiest nations. But increased food insecurity is among the dangerous effects of the climate crisis, as well as being worsened by Trump's tariffs, and geopolitical instability including the war in Ukraine. Last year the problem for British farmers was too much summer rain, leading to waterlogged fields and lost crops. This year the challenge has been the reverse: prolonged, intense hot weather, leading to large parts of England being declared officially in drought. Dramatic local and regional variations complicate the picture. While some farmers are warning of smaller vegetables in supermarkets following disappointing early harvests, others have fared quite well. It is too soon to draw firm conclusions or make decisive comparisons with previous years. What is already beyond doubt, however, is the immense challenge of adapting to an altered reality. At a recent water summit hosted by the National Farmers' Union, Steve Reed, the environment secretary, suggested that the government might support a change to planning rules, making it easier for farmers to build reservoirs on their land. Ministers should work with nature experts as well as farmers to develop this, and other proposals to boost resilience, in an environmentally responsible way. While tensions between the priorities of conservationists and farmers have not gone away, there is also common ground, for example around the need for stronger, long-term water infrastructure and flood risk planning. Last month a survey by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit found that more than 80% of UK farmers are worried about the climate crisis. Such fears, along with falls in crop yields and incomes, also help explain the furious reaction to inheritance tax changes introduced last year by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, restricting an exemption for agricultural land. Last week the independent Centre for the Analysis of Taxation proposed amendments to the new rules that the Treasury should consider carefully. The chancellor is right to target wealthy, tax-avoiding landowners. But ministerial antagonism toward rural communities serves no purpose and only plays into the populist right's hands. While farmers are the first to register falling yields, and smaller heads of broccoli, the productivity and resilience of agricultural land affects everyone who is not insulated by wealth from higher food prices. Last month a thinktank, the Autonomy Institute, argued that the UK is particularly exposed to 'climateflation' due to its heavy reliance on food imports. Extreme weather could drive up food prices by more than a third by 2050. With this in mind, the government should seek constructive engagement with farmers, while promoting healthy food policies. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Guardian
3 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Hamas says it accepts proposal for Gaza ceasefire and release of hostages
Hamas officials say they have accepted a proposal for a Gaza ceasefire deal that would include the release of half of the remaining 20 living hostages as part of a phased resolution to the war, as Gaza health officials said 62,000 Palestinians had now died in the 22 months of war. The proposed deal follows negotiations between Hamas and Egyptian and Qatari officials that have been taking place in Cairo in recent days, and comes after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was confronted on Sunday by Israel's biggest protests of the war, which called for a deal to secure the release of the country's hostages. Netanyahu has criticised the large-scale street protests against his handling of the Gaza war, and his failure to secure the release of the remaining hostages, claiming that demonstrators were giving comfort to Hamas's position in negotiations. Organisers of the protests, for their part, have called for a fresh demonstrations this Sunday. The latest Gaza ceasefire proposal agreed by Hamas includes a suspension of military operations for 60 days and could be seen as a path to reach a comprehensive deal to end the nearly two-year-long Israel-Gaza war, according to Egyptian sources. During the period of suspension, Palestinian prisoners would be exchanged in return for half of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The suggestion of movement in the long-running ceasefire negotiations comes as Egypt – long regarded as a key mediator between Hamas and Israel – has taken a more central role in the talks, and amid threats by Israel to launch a large new military offensive to take control of Gaza City, potentially displacing up to 1 million Palestinians. The proposal was expected to be presented to Israel on Monday, although Netanyahu has said Israel is no longer interested in partial deals, saying it will only agree to end the war if Hamas releases all of the hostages at once, disarms, and allows for the demilitarisation of Gaza. Realistically, however, the latest round of talks – which Arab mediators suggest has gone a long way towards meeting previous Israeli objections, and is based on a US-proposed framework – is bound to feed into a febrile political situation in Israel, which is facing growing and acrimonious social and political divisions. Netanyahu has faced high-profile pushback from senior security officials who have warned that the lives of the remaining hostages could be in peril in the event of a new offensive to take Gaza City, warnings that have fed into the mass protests. Israel's plan to seize control of Gaza City has stirred alarm at home and abroad, as it has come under intensifying international pressure over growing starvation in Gaza, which it is blamed for, and accusations of genocide. Talks have been continuing in Egypt with participants including the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the head of Egypt's general intelligence service, and representatives of the Palestinian factions in Gaza who are under pressure to reach a deal. While Netanyahu received the backing of the US president, Donald Trump, on Monday for 'confronting and defeating Hamas', the vast scale of the demonstrations in Israel on Sunday – involving more than 400,000 people – suggested an increasing weariness in the country over the war and fury about missed opportunities to secure the hostages' release. In response to the protests, Netanyahu, who is wanted by the international criminal court over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, accused those participating of giving comfort to Hamas. 'The people who are calling today for the war's end without Hamas's defeat are not only toughening Hamas's stance and distancing our hostages' release, they are also ensuring that the atrocities of October will recur time and again, and that our sons and daughters will have to fight time and again in an endless war. 'Therefore, in order to advance our hostages' release and to ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel, we have to finish the job and defeat Hamas,' said Netanyahu in a statement. With 50 hostages still held in Gaza – of whom about 20 are believed to be alive – some of those attending the march carried signs referencing the death of the dual US-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was killed by his captors last October along with five other hostages as Israeli troops approached the place where they were being held. Placards repeated a sentiment expressed by Goldberg-Polin's father at his son's funeral – 'May your memory be a revolution' – adapting the familiar Jewish expression of condolence: 'May your memory be a blessing'. Responding to Netanyahu's remarks, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum lambasted the Israeli prime minister, saying: 'They have been languishing in Gaza for 22 months, on your watch.' Netanyahu was also fiercely criticised by the leader of the Israeli opposition Democrats party, Yair Golan, as a man who 'lies as he breathes'. He said: 'The man who time and again refused to eliminate Hamas's leaders before October 7, who funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars from Qatar to finance the tunnels and weapons that threaten our hostages. 'This is the same Netanyahu who strengthened Hamas back then, and it is he who is strengthening Hamas now as well. Netanyahu doesn't know how to win and doesn't want to free the hostages. He needs an eternal war in order to cling to his seat and to escape a commission of inquiry [into the 7 October Hamas attack that triggered the war].' Amid the threat of an imminent Israeli ground offensive, thousands of Palestinians are leaving their homes in eastern areas of Gaza City, under constant Israeli bombardment, for points in the west and south of the shattered territory.
BreakingNews.ie
3 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Hamas accepts ceasefire proposal on Gaza as Palestinian death toll passes 62,000
Hamas said it has accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that would still need Israel's approval, as Gaza's Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from 22 months of war had passed 62,000. US President Donald Trump meanwhile appeared to cast doubt on the long-running negotiations. Advertisement 'We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,' he posted on his Truth Social site. Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli army airstrike in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip (Mariam Dagga/AP) Israel announced plans to reoccupy Gaza City and other heavy populated areas after the ceasefire talks appeared to have broken down last month, raising the possibility of a worsening of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which experts say is sliding into famine. Plans to expand the offensive, which are in part aimed at pressuring Hamas, have sparked international outrage and infuriated many Israelis who fear for the remaining hostages taken in the October 7 attack that started the war. Hundreds of thousands took part in mass protests on Sunday calling for their return. Advertisement Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty said mediators are 'exerting extensive efforts' to revive a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, during which some hostages would be released and the sides would negotiate a lasting ceasefire and the return of the rest. He spoke during a visit to Egypt's Rafah crossing with Gaza, which has not functioned since Israel seized the Palestinian side in May 2024. He was accompanied by Mohammad Mustafa, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, which has been largely sidelined since the war began. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa and Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty attend a press conference during their visit to Rafah crossing (Mayar Mokhtar/AP) Mr Abdelatty said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had joined the talks, which include senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, who arrived in Cairo last week. Advertisement He said they are open to other ideas, including for a comprehensive deal that would release all the hostages at once. Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, later told The Associated Press that the militant group had accepted the proposal introduced by the mediators, without elaborating. An Egyptian official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said the proposal includes changes to Israel's pullback of its forces and guarantees for negotiations on a lasting ceasefire during the initial truce. The official said it is almost identical to an earlier proposal accepted by Israel, which has not yet joined the latest talks. Advertisement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas has been disarmed, and to maintain lasting security control over Gaza. Egyptian Red Crescent members prepare humanitarian aid at their warehouse in the logistical centre supporting Gaza in Egypt (Mayar Mokhtar/AP) Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. – Palestinian death toll surpasses 62,000 The Gaza Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from the war had climbed to 62,004, with another 156,230 people wounded. It does not say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the dead. Advertisement The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes its toll but has not provided its own. The ministry said 1,965 people have been killed while seeking humanitarian aid since May, either in the chaos around UN convoys or while heading to sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor. Witnesses, health officials and the UN human rights office say Israeli forces have repeatedly fired toward crowds of people seeking aid. Israel says it has only fired warning shots at people who approached its forces while GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired into the air on rare occasions to prevent deadly crowding.
