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Ali Khamenei - The Full Biography of Iran’s Supreme Leader Documentary · Gil I Am

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Speaker 1: On the twenty seventh of June nineteen eighty one, Ali Khmanee,
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Speaker 1: a religious cleric and rising political figure in Iran following
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Speaker 1: the Revolution of nineteen seventy nine, arrived at the Abuza
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Speaker 1: Mosque in Tehran. Once inside, an assassin disguised as a
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Speaker 1: journalist placed a tape recorder in front of Ramanie. It
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Speaker 1: exploded a minute later, severely injuring Kramenee and leaving him
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Speaker 1: with permanent injuries. Notwithstanding his near death experience, Khmanee went
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Speaker 1: on to become the Supreme leader of Iran. But who
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Speaker 1: had tried to assassinate Kramenee and how did this assassination
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Speaker 1: attempt shape the outlook of the man who has led
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Speaker 1: Iran since nineteen eighty nine. This is the story of
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Speaker 1: Ali Kramanee, the second Supreme Leader of Iran. The man
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Speaker 1: known to history as Ayatollah Ali Khmanai was born on
1:13
Speaker 1: the seventeenth of July nineteen thirty nine in the city
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Speaker 1: of Mashdad in the province of Rosan, situated in northeaster
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Speaker 1: in Iran. Iran was then known as the Imperial States
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Speaker 1: of Iran, unlike today, when it is officially called the
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Speaker 1: Islamic Republic of Iran. There is a dispute of Rahmanai's
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Speaker 1: exact date of birth, with some accounts stating that he
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Speaker 1: was born on the nineteenth of April nineteen thirty nine.
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Speaker 1: His father was Javad Rahmanai, a Shia cleric who was
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Speaker 1: born in the village of Rahmanee in the province of
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Speaker 1: East Azerbaijan, situated in the northwest of Iran. The family
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Speaker 1: takes its name from this village. Javad was of Iranian
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Speaker 1: Azeri ethnicity. He and his son are AZII. This ethnic
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Speaker 1: group form a large minority within Iran itself, but are
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Speaker 1: more dominant further north in Azerbaijan. Ethnic Aziris are the
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Speaker 1: largest minority in Iran after the Persian majority, and are
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Speaker 1: concentrated in the northwest of the country. After studying as
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Speaker 1: a Shier scholar in Najaf in Iraq, home to the
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Speaker 1: imam Ali Shrine, the holiest in Shia Islam, Javad relocated
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Speaker 1: to Mashdad, one of the holiest places in this branch
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Speaker 1: of Islam. There he met Radidje mir de Madi, whom
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Speaker 1: he married as his second wife. In all, they had
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Speaker 1: eight children, several of Ali's siblings have risen to positions
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Speaker 1: of prominence within Iranian society, though this has occasionally seen
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Speaker 1: them clash with Ali in his role as supreme leader
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Speaker 1: of the country since nineteen eighty nine. For instance, his
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Speaker 1: younger brother Hadi as a cleric who was a member
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Speaker 1: of the Iranian Parliament the mudge Less between two thousand
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Speaker 1: and two thousand four. Haddi was also a member of
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Speaker 1: the reform minded Association of Combatant Clerics. This organization was
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Speaker 1: then arguing for a reduction in the power of the
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Speaker 1: Supreme Leader, in addition to a reduction in the influence
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Speaker 1: of the Mullahs and Mosque leaders who surround him. Ali's
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Speaker 1: education began at a young age in Mashdad. This was
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Speaker 1: substantially at the direction of his father, who emerged as
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Speaker 1: a mujtahid, a scholar who was deemed to be of
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Speaker 1: sufficient religious knowledge and learning so as to be able
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Speaker 1: to interpret religious law himself. At the same time, Javard
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Speaker 1: Ramenei was sometimes absent from Mashdad and returned to Najaf
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Speaker 1: in Iraq on occasion. The family lived a modest life
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Speaker 1: in Mashdad. They were not wealthy or pers zest of
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Speaker 1: many material trappings, yet they were held in high regard
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Speaker 1: within the community on account of Javad's status as a
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Speaker 1: respected religious cleric. He often led Friday prayers and was
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Speaker 1: consulted by local leaders. Similarly, Ali's mother was well educated
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Speaker 1: and taught him about Persian history, art, and literature. Kramenei
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Speaker 1: has since emphasized the austere lifestyle of his childhood, claiming
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Speaker 1: that the family lived in a one room house with
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Speaker 1: little else beyond the basement and subsisted primarily on bread,
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Speaker 1: dates and raisins. This is quite possibly an exaggeration of
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Speaker 1: how modest their lives were. Kramani's life was shaped by
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Speaker 1: political developments in his homeland from even before he was born.
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Speaker 1: Iran or Persia as it was known throughout history until
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Speaker 1: modern times, was one of less than a dozen nations
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Speaker 1: in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia that was not
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Speaker 1: colonized in the nineteenth century. Iran thus sits alongside Abbassinya
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Speaker 1: or Ethiopia and Liberia in Africa, as well as countries
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Speaker 1: such as Japan, China, and Siam in Asia. Persia had
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Speaker 1: a long and proud history, with empires having emerged from
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Speaker 1: this part of Central Asia since antiquity. Between the sixteenth
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Speaker 1: and eighteenth centuries, it was the power in the region
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Speaker 1: which stopped the further eastward expansion of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
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Speaker 1: This occurred under the Sawafid dynasty. At the end of
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Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, the Kadja dynasty came to power. The
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Speaker 1: Kajar rulers adhered to twelver Shia Islam, a branch of
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Speaker 1: Shia Islam which holds that there were twelve legitimate Imams
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Speaker 1: or leaders of the Islamic Faith after the prophet Muhammad,
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Speaker 1: beginning with his son in Law Ali and ending with
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Speaker 1: Mohammad al Mahdi, the latter of whom will, like the
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Speaker 1: second Coming of Christ in Christian belief, re emerge one
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Speaker 1: day to redeem the Islamic faith. The Kajar dynasty's adherence
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Speaker 1: to twelver Shi'a forms an important link with the Iranian Revolution,
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Speaker 1: which would start Ramenai's assent to become the supreme leader
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Speaker 1: of Iran. In modern times, the Qajar rulers technically reigned
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Speaker 1: down to nineteen twenty five. However, already in nineteen twenty one,
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Speaker 1: the Middle East had been reshaped after the collapse of
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Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War.
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Speaker 1: In that year, a military coup had occurred in Iran,
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Speaker 1: which was led by a military officer by the name
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Speaker 1: of Brazer Shah Pakhlavi. He claimed full power in nineteen
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Speaker 1: twenty five had established the Pahlavi dynasty, a much more
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Speaker 1: secular orientated royal house. He was himself overthrown in nineteen
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Speaker 1: forty one during the Second World War, after the British
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Speaker 1: and Soviets invaded Iran out of fear that it was
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Speaker 1: about to ally with Nazi Germany. His twenty one year
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Speaker 1: old son, Mohammed Reser Pahlavi, was placed on the throne.
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Speaker 1: Though Iran remained under close Allied oversight for the duration
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Speaker 1: of the war. Post nineteen forty five, he began to
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Speaker 1: rule in his own right. His lengthy reign of nearly
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Speaker 1: four decades was a strange mix of authoritarianism and liberalism,
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Speaker 1: in which Iran was one of the few countries in
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Speaker 1: the Middle East with a relaxed religious environment. However, the
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Speaker 1: Shah's secret police, the Savak, oversaw a system of mass surveillance, repression,
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Speaker 1: and torture of perceived opponents of the regime. The shahs
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Speaker 1: regime was anxious to keep a handle on religious movements
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Speaker 1: that it believed might challenge the secular rule of the Shah.
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Speaker 1: Despite this, Iran was home to many religious schools that
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Speaker 1: adhered to rerigid and conservative values, and Iran remained a
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Speaker 1: profoundly religious society even under the Shah's rule. Ramaney's early
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Speaker 1: life reflected this. In the mid nineteen fifties, he began
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Speaker 1: studying under leading religious scholars like Ayatolla Sheik Hashem Rasvani
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Speaker 1: in Mashdad. The city was a renowned religious site owing
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Speaker 1: to it being the resting place of the eighth Imam
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Speaker 1: of twelve Ashia Ali ibn Musa. Mashdad was also home
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Speaker 1: to many Shia scholars and Ayatolla's other than Ali's father,
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Speaker 1: Ayatollah is a name for a high ranking religious leader
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Speaker 1: or scholar. Within twelve, a Shia Islam from Mashdad, Ramenee,
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Speaker 1: crossed the border briefly to study in the city of
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Speaker 1: Najaf in Iraq, the burial place of Ali, the first
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Speaker 1: Imam of Shia Islam. As the resting place of Ali,
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Speaker 1: Najaf is consequently amongst the holiest places in the world
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Speaker 1: for Shia Muslims. After a brief period there, Ramenee returned
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Speaker 1: to Iran and settled in the city of kom It
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Speaker 1: was here that he began studying under Ayatola Khimani in
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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven, the individual who, over two decades later
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Speaker 1: would become the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
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Speaker 1: of Iran. By nineteen fifty seven, Khomeni was already developing
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Speaker 1: a reputation as a prominent opponent of the Shah's regime.
9:31
Speaker 1: Ramenee's life was shaped in many ways by the events
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Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty three. Early that year, the Shah launched
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Speaker 1: a policy programme designed to modernize Iran along western lines
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Speaker 1: and expand its economy. A core element of what is
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Speaker 1: termed the White Revolution included an attempt to reform the
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Speaker 1: system of landholding in Iran. This threatened to undermine the
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Speaker 1: traditional structures of Persian society and aroused opposiz from within
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Speaker 1: the clerical class. In the midst of it, Ayatola Rahmiane
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Speaker 1: became even more vocal in his opposition to the shahs
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Speaker 1: regime than he had been already. He was placed under arrest,
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Speaker 1: an action which led to protests around the country in
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Speaker 1: June nineteen sixty three, during which hundreds of people lost
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Speaker 1: their lives. The Ayatola continued to denounce both the Shah
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Speaker 1: and the influence of his Western allies in Iran, particularly
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Speaker 1: that of the United States. As a result, the Shah
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Speaker 1: determined that the best way to deal with the threat
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Speaker 1: of Romani was to simply remove him from Iran. In
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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four, Romani was sent into exile. He spent
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Speaker 1: over fourteen years outside of Iran, first briefly in Turkey,
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Speaker 1: then primarily in Iraq. Towards the end of the nineteen seventies,
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Speaker 1: he spent a few months in France. In Iraq, he
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Speaker 1: became a focus for foreign opposition to the Shah, and
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Speaker 1: as a result, fellow dissidence joined him in exile. There,
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Speaker 1: Ramenee was not among them, although he was a keen
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Speaker 1: supporter of his former teacher and his political views. Ali
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Speaker 1: remained in Iran. He also left kom and returned to
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Speaker 1: his native Mashdad to help care for his aging father,
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Speaker 1: who had become blind in one eye. This is significant
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Speaker 1: for later events, as it meant that Ramenee never completed
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Speaker 1: the full religious training at Kom or Tehran This religious training,
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Speaker 1: for some was later perceived as vital to qualify for
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Speaker 1: the position of the supreme leader of the country. Ramenee
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Speaker 1: did begin to play a major role in the clerical
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Speaker 1: opposition to the Shah's rule with in Iran in the
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Speaker 1: period between the White Revolution in nineteen sixty three and
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Speaker 1: the Iranian Revolution of the late nineteen seventies. In nineteen
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Speaker 1: sixty seven, he helped translate The Future in Islamic Lands
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Speaker 1: by the Egyptian religious scholar Sayid Kutbah from the Arabic
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Speaker 1: in Tafarsi. Kutbah was a major influence on the subsequent
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Speaker 1: development of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qa'eda.
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Speaker 1: His book called for religious revolution to overthrow secular forces
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Speaker 1: across the Middle East, like the government of the Shah.
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Speaker 1: Tramenee also wrote a forward to the translation which bluntly
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Speaker 1: stated that quote the future belongs to Islam. Publication of
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Speaker 1: the book was broadly prevented by Savak, the Shah's secret police.
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Speaker 1: It was the beginning of a period in which Ramenee
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Speaker 1: was arrested on several occasions and held for months at
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Speaker 1: a time. In between these periods of detention, he traveled
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Speaker 1: around the country and gave sermons and speeches in which
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Speaker 1: he railed against the Shah. His most prolonged period of
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Speaker 1: arrest was in nineteen seventy five, when he was detained
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Speaker 1: in Tehran between January and August of that year. During
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Speaker 1: this time, he was largely kept in solitary confinement and
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Speaker 1: his family was not informed as to his location. Undeterred,
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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy seven, he helped found the Association of
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Speaker 1: Combatant Clergy, which, as the name suggests, was a religious
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Speaker 1: group set up to oppose the regime. Rahmanei's family life
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Speaker 1: was modest during these years. In nineteen sixty four, after
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Speaker 1: returning to Mashdad from com he married his sole wife,
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Speaker 1: Mansurre Krujaeste Bagherzade. Despite his subsequent standing within Iranian society,
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Speaker 1: very little is known about her. There are, for instance,
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Speaker 1: no photographs of her, and few even know what she
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Speaker 1: looks like. In an interview which she once gave, she
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Speaker 1: described how she and her husband had discussed the possibility
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Speaker 1: of his arrest by the Shah's government from the earliest
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Speaker 1: days of their marriage. Mansourre stated that she agreed with
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Speaker 1: her husband's mission, she viewed her own role as being
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Speaker 1: to provide stability in their household during his frequent bouts
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Speaker 1: of imprisonment. They had six children, four sons named Mostafa, Mujtaba, Masoud,
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Speaker 1: and Meisam, and two daughters, Roda and Boshra. The family
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Speaker 1: continued to live a relatively frugal life even after the
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Speaker 1: Iranian Revolution and Ramenee's rise to power. Ramenee is also
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Speaker 1: said to have been a more open minded religious cleric
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Speaker 1: in some respects than his contemporaries, such as the Ayatola.
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Speaker 1: Kremeni Ali, for instance, was known to read Western books,
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Speaker 1: like the works of the American author John Steinbeck. This
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Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily suggest he was approving of Western culture, but
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Speaker 1: it does demonstrate a greater desire to understand the mind
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Speaker 1: of the average American and Westerner in a way which
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Speaker 1: the Ayatollah did not countenance. Several of the Western books
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Speaker 1: which Ramenee read simply intensified the cleric's critical views of
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Speaker 1: Western culture. By the time that Ramenee contributed to the
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Speaker 1: founding of the Association of Combatant Clergy in nineteen seventy seven,
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Speaker 1: the political environment in Iran was deteriorating, in spite of
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Speaker 1: efforts by the Shah and his secret police to clamp
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Speaker 1: down on opposition. Anti Pahlavi sentiment was growing, and there
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Speaker 1: were an increasing number of public demonstrations of unrest. Opposition
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Speaker 1: swelled in nineteen seventy eight, driven by riots and police
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Speaker 1: crackdowns that led to hundreds of deaths. A galvanizing incident
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Speaker 1: was the Cinema rex Fire of the nineteenth of August
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, when over four hundred people were killed
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Speaker 1: after the cinema in question in the city of Abadan
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Speaker 1: was barricaded shut and set on fire. Islamic terrorists were
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Speaker 1: probably responsible, but the Shah's government was blamed that the time.
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Speaker 1: A sign of how weak the regime had become was
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Speaker 1: seen when it pressured the government of Saddam Hussein to
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Speaker 1: force Ayatola Chomani out of Iraq. It was clear that
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Speaker 1: Humani's presence in Iran's neighboring country was feared by the
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Speaker 1: Shas regime. Romani left for France even as the protests
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Speaker 1: intensified in Iran in the final months of nineteen seventy eight.
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Speaker 1: The Iranian revolution came to a peak in January nineteen
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Speaker 1: seventy nine, when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to
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Speaker 1: the streets of Tehran and other cities. Meanwhile, the Shah,
16:39
Speaker 1: whose health was in severe decline, fled from Iran on
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Speaker 1: the sixteenth of January nineteen seventy nine. By then, the
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Speaker 1: Islamic Revolutionary Council had been formed as a thirteen man
16:50
Speaker 1: body charged with overseeing the transition to Islamic rule as
16:55
Speaker 1: the Shah's government collapsed. Its actions were clandestine. However, it
17:00
Speaker 1: was revealed in nineteen eighty that Ramenei was a member.
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Speaker 1: This was a revelation which surprised many and which signified
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Speaker 1: his assent as one of the leaders of the revolution.
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Speaker 1: Just over two weeks after the Shah's flight, the Ayatollah
17:15
Speaker 1: landed at Mehabad International Airport in Tehran from France on
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Speaker 1: the first of February. Over the next ten days, what
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Speaker 1: remained of the secular government that had controlled Iran since
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Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties collapsed. The e length of February is
17:31
Speaker 1: typically celebrated today as the conclusion of the Iranian Revolution,
17:36
Speaker 1: ten days after the Ayatolla's return to the country, the
17:42
Speaker 1: Iranian Revolution had succeeded in overthrowing the government of the Shah,
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Speaker 1: Yet the issue of what kind of alternative government would
17:50
Speaker 1: take its place was not as simple an issue as
17:53
Speaker 1: is often assumed. The opposition to the Pahlavi dynasty had
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Speaker 1: not been a unified Islamist movement led by by Ayatolchomani
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Speaker 1: from exile and by clerics like Ali Hramani from within. Instead,
18:06
Speaker 1: opposition to the Shah had consisted of a broad coalition
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Speaker 1: of Sia clerics, other Islamic groups, more secular minded politicians,
18:15
Speaker 1: and even left wing entities tied to the Soviet Union.
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Speaker 1: Within the context of the Cold War. Throughout nineteen seventy nine,
18:23
Speaker 1: there was a tug of war between these varying groups
18:26
Speaker 1: to see what kind of political system would be put
18:28
Speaker 1: in place. There were many who wished for a continuation
18:32
Speaker 1: of the kind of secular society that the Shah had overseen,
18:36
Speaker 1: just with the Shah removed and a Western style democracy created. However,
18:41
Speaker 1: the pro democracy and moderate Islamist factions lost out in
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Speaker 1: the course of nineteen seventy nine as the Ayatollah and
18:48
Speaker 1: the clerics cemented their control over the country. In December
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, RAHMANI was established as the first supreme
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Speaker 1: leader of the newly created Islamic Republic of Iran. There
19:01
Speaker 1: were democratic elements to the new state, but effectively it
19:05
Speaker 1: became a theocracy. The Iatolis image now adorned public places
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Speaker 1: all over Tehran and other major cities. In the course
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Speaker 1: of the nineteen eighties, Ramenee played a role in this process.
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Speaker 1: He was involved in the establishment of the Islamic Republican Party,
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Speaker 1: the official government party that would dominate the country's politics
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Speaker 1: down to nineteen eighty seven. He was also given a
19:29
Speaker 1: senior role in purging the Iranian army and security forces
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Speaker 1: of officers that were residually loyal to the Shah's regime.
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Speaker 1: Ramenee nearly lost his life early on in the history
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Speaker 1: of the new Islamic Republic in an incident which left
19:47
Speaker 1: him with life altering injuries. On the twenty seventh of
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Speaker 1: June nineteen eighty one, he arrived at the Abuza Mosque
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Speaker 1: in Tehran to speak with members of the mosque's congregation.
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Speaker 1: Ramenee's position as a member of the new parliament and
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Speaker 1: as the leader of Friday prayers in the capital meant
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Speaker 1: that he was fast emerging as a prominent member of
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Speaker 1: the Islamic regime. This made him a target for dissidents.
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Speaker 1: The government was far from secure by the early nineteen eighties.
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Speaker 1: It faced a range of counter revolutionary forces in the
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Speaker 1: shape of continued supporters of the Pahlavi dynasty, Marxist groups
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Speaker 1: supported by the Soviet Union like the People's Mujahideen Organization
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Speaker 1: of Iran, and also the Furkhan Group. The latter were
20:33
Speaker 1: a militant religious group that combined a social view of
20:37
Speaker 1: Iranian society, opposing wealthy Iranian business figures tied to the
20:41
Speaker 1: new regime. The Khan Group also looked to dismantle the
20:45
Speaker 1: clerical system that placed great power in the hands of
20:48
Speaker 1: figures like Supreme Leader Khomeni and Ali Khamenei. That day
20:54
Speaker 1: in the Abuzar Mosque in Tehran, a member of the
20:57
Speaker 1: Furkhan Group, disguised as a journ placed a tape recorder
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Speaker 1: in front of Ramenee to apparently record what he said
21:05
Speaker 1: as he answered questions. About a minute later, the device
21:09
Speaker 1: started to make a whistling sound. It then exploded. A
21:14
Speaker 1: message was later found inside the remains of the device
21:17
Speaker 1: saying a gift from the Furkhan Group. Ramenee was badly
21:25
Speaker 1: injured in the blast and was taken to hospital he survived,
21:29
Speaker 1: for the impact had severely damaged the nerves in his
21:32
Speaker 1: right arm, which has remained almost completely paralyzed ever since.
21:37
Speaker 1: His neck was also hit and his vocal cords were
21:40
Speaker 1: damaged permanently two. This is why when Ramenee speaks at
21:44
Speaker 1: Friday prayers or delivers addresses to the nation, he appears
21:48
Speaker 1: to be quite softly spoken. His vocal cords have never
21:52
Speaker 1: entirely recovered from the assassination attempt in nineteen eighty one.
21:57
Speaker 1: Despite the substantial injuries he suffered during the assassination attempt
22:01
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one, Ramenee very quickly rose to become
22:05
Speaker 1: President of Iran only six days before the assassination attempt.
22:10
Speaker 1: The first president of Iran since the revolution, abod Hassan Banisadre,
22:15
Speaker 1: was impeached at the Ayatollah's instigation. This was because Banisadra
22:20
Speaker 1: was perceived as pursuing an overly secular line in government. Then,
22:25
Speaker 1: his successor as second President of Iran, Mohammad Ali Raja'i,
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Speaker 1: was assassinated on the thirtieth of August nineteen eighty one,
22:33
Speaker 1: after just weeks in office, in a bombing which the
22:36
Speaker 1: People's Mojahadeen are believed to have orchestrated accordingly, fresh presidential
22:42
Speaker 1: elections were once again held on the second of October
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one. Although he was not fully recovered yet
22:49
Speaker 1: from his injuries, Ramenee was on the ballot. It is
22:53
Speaker 1: important to realize how presidential elections were and continued to
22:58
Speaker 1: be held in the Islamic Republic. Elections are alleged to
23:02
Speaker 1: be free and fair so far as voters are able
23:05
Speaker 1: to cast their votes. Whoever a majority of people select
23:10
Speaker 1: is elected as president. However, the candidates that appear on
23:14
Speaker 1: the ballot must be approved by the Supreme Leader and
23:17
Speaker 1: the clerics who rule the country. There is some element
23:20
Speaker 1: of choice, and Iran has more of a democratic element
23:24
Speaker 1: to its government than say, the complete authoritarianism of a
23:28
Speaker 1: country like Saudi Arabia. Ramenee won the vote in a
23:32
Speaker 1: landslide and became the third president of Iran since the revolution.
23:39
Speaker 1: Ramenee served as president of Iran for eight years down
23:43
Speaker 1: to nineteen eighty nine. Throughout this time, the overwhelming issue
23:48
Speaker 1: which dominated the country's politics and life was war with
23:51
Speaker 1: neighboring Iraq, which was well and away when he entered office.
23:56
Speaker 1: The dictator of that country Saddam Hussein had invaded a
24:00
Speaker 1: Rhan in September nineteen eighty fearful that the revolution could
24:03
Speaker 1: spread to his country. Saddam was a Sunni Muslim ruler
24:08
Speaker 1: of a country with a shier Muslim majority. Hussain was
24:12
Speaker 1: backed by American advanced weaponry and hoped to win a sharp,
24:15
Speaker 1: short war. Instead, his initial invasion was repelled, and from
24:20
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one onwards most of the fighting took place
24:23
Speaker 1: on Iraqi soil. It became an extremely bitter war, lasting
24:28
Speaker 1: nearly eight years, resulting in more than a million deaths
24:32
Speaker 1: according to estimates, and even involving extensive use of chemical weapons.
24:38
Speaker 1: After Sadam Hussain realized that he had made a strategic
24:41
Speaker 1: error in attacking Iran and that Iran, which had a
24:45
Speaker 1: far larger population and more resources, would probably win a
24:49
Speaker 1: prolonged struggle, he sued for a cease fire and peace
24:53
Speaker 1: negotiations in nineteen eighty two. Kramenei was apparently amongst the
24:58
Speaker 1: senior Iranian politicians and cler lyrics who favored peace and
25:02
Speaker 1: demonstrated himself to have been a moderate in terms of
25:05
Speaker 1: the war effort. However, Kramenae and his allies in this
25:09
Speaker 1: regard were overruled on several occasions. In the years that followed,
25:14
Speaker 1: he visited the front as president. At home, he oversaw
25:19
Speaker 1: punitive courts and crackdowns on dissidence as the regime continued
25:23
Speaker 1: to impose its brand of religious rule on the country.
25:27
Speaker 1: He won a huge majority of eighty seven percent to
25:30
Speaker 1: qualify for a second term as president in nineteen eighty five.
25:38
Speaker 1: When Ayotl Khremeni returned to Iran in nineteen seventy nine
25:42
Speaker 1: after fourteen years in exile, he was already in his
25:46
Speaker 1: late seventies, albeit his exact date of birth is debated.
25:51
Speaker 1: This means that his time as the first Supreme Leader
25:54
Speaker 1: of Iran was always going to be limited. In the end,
25:58
Speaker 1: he held power for a decade, dying on the third
26:01
Speaker 1: of June nineteen eighty nine as he neared his ninetieth year.
26:05
Speaker 1: He had suffered a heart attack in nineteen eighty six,
26:08
Speaker 1: and with his health deteriorating, there had been a lot
26:11
Speaker 1: of talk in Tehran about the succession. The last thing
26:14
Speaker 1: the clerics wanted was a long period of indecision after
26:17
Speaker 1: he passed away. This would depict the regime as being
26:21
Speaker 1: weak and indecisive. Still there was no one amongst the
26:26
Speaker 1: leading clerics and political figures that carried anything near the
26:30
Speaker 1: same political and religious weight as Romani had. As such,
26:35
Speaker 1: while a number of individuals were being mentioned as potential
26:38
Speaker 1: successes from as early as nineteen eighty three, when the
26:41
Speaker 1: Iotolla finally died in the summer of nineteen eighty nine,
26:45
Speaker 1: there was no clear succession plan. The Assembly of Experts,
26:50
Speaker 1: a broader version of the Guardian Council, which is, to
26:53
Speaker 1: a large extent, the unelected body which actually governs Iran,
26:57
Speaker 1: met the day after the Iatola died to adjudicate on
27:00
Speaker 1: the issue of succession. The idea that there would be
27:04
Speaker 1: no new Supreme leader and a more conciliar form of
27:08
Speaker 1: government would be set up instead was dismissed. Instead, votes
27:13
Speaker 1: were held on a potential successor. Although Ramenee was hardly
27:17
Speaker 1: a natural leader, nor was he lobbied for by a
27:21
Speaker 1: broad section of the councilors, it was Ramenee who emerged
27:25
Speaker 1: as a compromise candidate. An unsubstantiated claim was also circulated
27:31
Speaker 1: that late in his life the Ayatollah himself had signaled
27:35
Speaker 1: his wish for Ramenee to succeed him. Hence, in the
27:38
Speaker 1: final vote, Ramenee was elected as the second Supreme Leader
27:43
Speaker 1: of Iran by sixty votes to fourteen at fifty years
27:47
Speaker 1: of age. This was a remarkable decision. Ramenee's religious studies
27:53
Speaker 1: had been cut short in the nineteen sixties when he
27:56
Speaker 1: returned to Mashdad, and as discussed, many regarded him as
28:00
Speaker 1: very underqualified for the position of Supreme Leader. Kramenai came
28:08
Speaker 1: to power in a period of flux in the wider
28:11
Speaker 1: Middle East. The war with Iraq had ended in August
28:14
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight. Sadam Hussein then focused his attention on
28:19
Speaker 1: escalating the quasi genocidal persecution of the Kurds in northern
28:23
Speaker 1: Iraq and catastrophically a spectacularly misjudged invasion and attempted annexation
28:30
Speaker 1: of Iraq's small southern neighbour, Kuwait in August nineteen ninety.
28:35
Speaker 1: Although it had previously bolstered Saddam as a regional ally
28:39
Speaker 1: against Iran, the United States responded to Iraq's invasion of
28:43
Speaker 1: Kuwait with military support for Kuwait's neighbours and the organization
28:48
Speaker 1: of a widespread alliance of Arab countries against Iraq. America's
28:53
Speaker 1: intervention in The matter became known as the First Gulf War,
28:57
Speaker 1: where a quick and decisive American response successfully liberated Kuwait
29:02
Speaker 1: and drove the Iraqi Army back into Iraq in full retreat.
29:09
Speaker 1: President George H. Bush, however, did not try to engage
29:13
Speaker 1: in regime change in Iraq, leaving Saddam in power after
29:17
Speaker 1: the war ended in nineteen ninety one. Further to the west,
29:21
Speaker 1: the long running Lebanese Civil War, which had been under
29:24
Speaker 1: way since nineteen seventy five, came to an end within
29:27
Speaker 1: months of Ramenei becoming Supreme leader. The Soviet Union had
29:31
Speaker 1: also ended its support for the communist regime in Iran's
29:35
Speaker 1: eastern neighbour Afghanistan. The Communists would soon be removed from power,
29:40
Speaker 1: and Afghanistan then descended into civil war as the groups
29:44
Speaker 1: which had once allied against the Communists now turned on
29:47
Speaker 1: one another. The Taliban would eventually seize power there. On
29:52
Speaker 1: Iran's northern borders, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan emerged as newly independent
29:58
Speaker 1: states after the collapse sol the Soviet Union in nineteen
30:01
Speaker 1: ninety and nineteen ninety one. Thus, the wider geopolitical situation
30:06
Speaker 1: around Iran was in major flux during Ramenae's first years
30:11
Speaker 1: as Supreme Leader. This had political implications at home, as
30:15
Speaker 1: the Afghan Civil War led to the influx of millions
30:19
Speaker 1: of Afghan refugees into Iran and Pakistan. These changes led
30:24
Speaker 1: to an increase in separatist sentiment in Iran as well,
30:27
Speaker 1: amongst groups like the Azeris, Kurds, and Balochs. A striking
30:35
Speaker 1: element of Ramenee's early years as Supreme Leader was the
30:38
Speaker 1: expansion of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Guard Corps
30:43
Speaker 1: had been set up in May nineteen seventy nine by
30:46
Speaker 1: Ayatolla Khmani to act as a kind of internal religious army.
30:50
Speaker 1: The Iranian Army itself would function as a normal national army,
30:55
Speaker 1: but the Guard Corps would function as a bulwark of
30:57
Speaker 1: the religious revolution within the Islamic Republic. This meant it
31:02
Speaker 1: had numerous different roles. For instance, the founders of the
31:06
Speaker 1: Islamic Republic were conscious that there would be Western efforts
31:09
Speaker 1: to try to undermine the new regime. Iran produces and
31:13
Speaker 1: controls huge amounts of oil reserves. Given the centrality of
31:18
Speaker 1: oil to the world economy, it was thus likely that
31:22
Speaker 1: any action by the Iranian regime could provoke intervention from
31:26
Speaker 1: Western nations whose economies had become underpinned by the availability
31:31
Speaker 1: of oil. This was especially the case at the end
31:34
Speaker 1: of the nineteen seventies, when the world had gone through
31:37
Speaker 1: the oil crisis of nineteen seventy three, a sharp spike
31:41
Speaker 1: in petroleum prices that was never reversed. Western economies experienced
31:45
Speaker 1: significant economic disruption through stagflation. As a consequence, the Guard
31:54
Speaker 1: Corps would also act to ensure the religious revolution within
31:58
Speaker 1: Iran against more liberal and secular elements. It had played
32:02
Speaker 1: a substantial role in Iranian politics and life during Romani's time.
32:07
Speaker 1: As Supreme Leader, Ramenee expanded it. He also made sure
32:12
Speaker 1: that the Guard Corps were extremely loyal to him. Over
32:16
Speaker 1: the years, the entire command structure of this second army
32:20
Speaker 1: of the state has been micromanaged by the Ayatollah to
32:24
Speaker 1: ensure that its top commanders and even mid ranking officers
32:28
Speaker 1: were hand picked by him. State resources were used to
32:32
Speaker 1: expand its power and influence over Iranian society, and the
32:37
Speaker 1: Guard Corps became a larger instrument of authoritarianism under Kmenae
32:42
Speaker 1: than it had been under the first Supreme Leader. Today
32:45
Speaker 1: there are approximately one hundred and twenty five thousand members
32:49
Speaker 1: of the Guard Corps, meaning that nearly one out of
32:52
Speaker 1: every seven hundred Iranians is a member abroad. Ramene extended
33:00
Speaker 1: the Iranian practice of cultivating anti Israeli and to some extent,
33:05
Speaker 1: anti Sunni proxies around the Middle East. The foremost of
33:10
Speaker 1: these was Hezbulah in Lebanon. This organization is a by
33:14
Speaker 1: product of the Lebanese Civil War that broke out in
33:17
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five. The war broke out in this former
33:21
Speaker 1: French mandated colony primarily as a result of the arrival
33:25
Speaker 1: of large numbers of Palestinian refugees and militant fighters into
33:29
Speaker 1: the country from nineteen seventy This was also a consequence
33:33
Speaker 1: of the Jordanian Civil War, where large numbers of Palestinians
33:38
Speaker 1: had been expelled from that country. Inspired by the Iranian
33:42
Speaker 1: Revolution of nineteen seventy nine and then motivated by the
33:45
Speaker 1: invasion of Lebanon by Israel in nineteen eighty two, Hezbullah
33:49
Speaker 1: was formed by Islamic clerics in southern Lebanon in nineteen
33:53
Speaker 1: eighty two. As well. It fostered ties with Iran from
33:57
Speaker 1: its inception, with Iram providing it with f funding and support.
34:01
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety two, two years after the Lebanese Civil
34:05
Speaker 1: War ended, Kramenee sanctioned the group to try to participate
34:09
Speaker 1: in the Lebanese elections. Iran has continued to fund its
34:13
Speaker 1: terrorist activities ever since the nineteen nineties, and Hezbollah is
34:18
Speaker 1: considered the most powerful regional proxy fostered by Ramenee in
34:22
Speaker 1: this period. The other major proxy that Ramene has supported
34:29
Speaker 1: since virtually the start of his time as Supreme Leader
34:33
Speaker 1: is Ramas. Ramas is an Islamic group which has become
34:37
Speaker 1: the dominant Palestinian power in the Gaza Strip since the
34:41
Speaker 1: group was founded in nineteen eighty seven. Ramas is a
34:45
Speaker 1: Sunni Muslim rather than a Shia Muslim entity, but nevertheless
34:49
Speaker 1: enjoys support from Iran as a proxy against the power
34:52
Speaker 1: of Israel. Iran is not the only regional supporter of Ramas.
34:57
Speaker 1: It also has had strong backing from ka In particular,
35:01
Speaker 1: Kramene's support for both Rama Singhaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon
35:06
Speaker 1: was steady and consistent from the nineteen nineties. Iranian backing
35:11
Speaker 1: has helped these groups to fight many different conflicts with Israel,
35:16
Speaker 1: particularly in the two thousands yet Iran's role in financing
35:20
Speaker 1: and empowering these proxies has really only become an issue
35:24
Speaker 1: of international significance in recent times. Another controversial element of
35:32
Speaker 1: Iran's policies since Kramenei came to power is its nuclear program.
35:37
Speaker 1: Contrary to what is often stated, Iran's nuclear program actually
35:41
Speaker 1: pre dates the Iranian Revolution all the way back in
35:45
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven, the Shah's government began working on a
35:48
Speaker 1: nuclear program with the active assistance of the U. S. Government.
35:53
Speaker 1: Ten years later, the government of President Lyndon Johnson provided
35:57
Speaker 1: five and a half kilograms of enriched uranium to its
36:00
Speaker 1: Middle Eastern ally for the nuclear reactor it was developing
36:04
Speaker 1: in Tehran. This was prior to nuclear incidents such as
36:08
Speaker 1: the Six Mile Island and Chernobyl disasters. Many countries in
36:13
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties and sixties were planning on developing large
36:16
Speaker 1: scale nuclear power to meet their energy demands. The Shah
36:21
Speaker 1: had plans to develop over a dozen nuclear power plants.
36:25
Speaker 1: Where Iran's nuclear program became a problem was when the
36:29
Speaker 1: Iranian Revolution saw the new Islamist regime replace that of
36:33
Speaker 1: the pro Western Shah. The Islamic Republic continued to try
36:40
Speaker 1: to develop the nuclear program in the nineteen eighties. However,
36:44
Speaker 1: progress was slow at this time, in large part because
36:47
Speaker 1: the change of government had blocked off access to some
36:51
Speaker 1: markets that were previously willing to supply Iran with uranium.
36:55
Speaker 1: By the nineteen nineties, with Kamenee in power, a more aggressive,
36:59
Speaker 1: new clear program was being developed. China provided Iran with
37:04
Speaker 1: a fusion reactor, for instance, in nineteen ninety three, and
37:08
Speaker 1: contracts were developed with Russia to provide the necessary technical expertise.
37:13
Speaker 1: Iran has since developed multiple nuclear sites at places such
37:17
Speaker 1: as Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. Under Hamenae, the regime has
37:22
Speaker 1: consistently maintained that it only wants to develop a civilian
37:27
Speaker 1: nuclear power program. Yet such a statement is hardly credible
37:31
Speaker 1: for a country which has vast oil and energy resources,
37:35
Speaker 1: and which has suffered so much under crippling economic sanctions
37:39
Speaker 1: as a result of its nuclear plans. Why would Iran
37:43
Speaker 1: countenance these economic sanctions for the sake of building nuclear
37:48
Speaker 1: power plants that it does not need. As we will see,
37:52
Speaker 1: Ramenee's nuclear program has been a major determinant of Iran's
37:57
Speaker 1: entire foreign policy, its domestic economic problems, and its general
38:02
Speaker 1: place in the world. Iran has consistently defended its nuclear
38:09
Speaker 1: program as simply being designed for civilian purposes to generate
38:13
Speaker 1: nuclear power and to facilitate the country's scientific development. The
38:18
Speaker 1: latter is a goal of the regime da Kramenae. He
38:21
Speaker 1: has sought to develop a more scientifically grounded economy and
38:25
Speaker 1: has promoted educational progress in tandem. Despite a range of restrictions,
38:31
Speaker 1: particularly on its oil and gas industry, which makes up
38:34
Speaker 1: a huge proportion of the country's wealth, Iran's economy has
38:38
Speaker 1: grown considerably during the three and a half decades that
38:41
Speaker 1: Kramenee has been in power. GDP growth briefly topped ten
38:46
Speaker 1: per cent annually in the early nineteen nineties, although part
38:50
Speaker 1: of that is attributable to rebuilding the economy after the
38:53
Speaker 1: war with Iraq. For several years in the two thousands,
38:57
Speaker 1: GDP growth averaged around seven or eight percent, buoyed by
39:02
Speaker 1: oil sales to China at the time of its economic miracle.
39:06
Speaker 1: This economic development, combined with its oil wealth and the
39:10
Speaker 1: sheer size of the population at over ninety million people,
39:14
Speaker 1: has made Iran one of Asia's wealthiest nations and inside
39:18
Speaker 1: the top thirty of the world's wealthiest nations according to
39:22
Speaker 1: most metrics. However, economic growth has stalled since the twenty tens.
39:28
Speaker 1: Official unemployment runs at around ten percent, and when the
39:32
Speaker 1: country is examined according to GDP per capita, it lies
39:36
Speaker 1: outside the world's top one hundred nations, being comparable to
39:40
Speaker 1: countries like Algeria, Indonesia, Namibia, and Bolivia. This lackluster economic
39:47
Speaker 1: performance is particularly surprising in a country with abundant oil
39:51
Speaker 1: and gas resources, all of which could be a key
39:55
Speaker 1: source of wealth and economic growth. This is a key
39:59
Speaker 1: reason why Kromenae's regime is intensely disliked at home today,
40:04
Speaker 1: especially amongst the younger generations. Another cause of the dislike
40:11
Speaker 1: of Ramenai's government is the wider political system and performance.
40:16
Speaker 1: As we have seen, there are elections held in Iran.
40:20
Speaker 1: This is in contrast to several other Middle Eastern nations
40:24
Speaker 1: where there isn't even the vaguest pretense of democratic norms. However,
40:29
Speaker 1: elections in Iran are far from being free and fair.
40:33
Speaker 1: The clerical religious leadership of the country have the power
40:36
Speaker 1: to veto the candidates, and as such no opponent of
40:40
Speaker 1: the regime would ever be allowed to stand. That being said,
40:44
Speaker 1: under Kramenee. Politicians with differing views on how the country
40:48
Speaker 1: should be governed have stood for and have won in elections.
40:53
Speaker 1: The clearest example of this was the election in nineteen
40:56
Speaker 1: ninety seven of Mohammad Khatami as the president of Iran.
41:02
Speaker 1: He won reelection in two thousand and one and served
41:05
Speaker 1: for eight years, a period known as the Reform Era
41:09
Speaker 1: in the history of the Islamic Republic. He ran on
41:12
Speaker 1: a platform which proposed liberalization of the country and reform
41:16
Speaker 1: of its economy and institutions. Kramenee did not block him
41:21
Speaker 1: from coming to power, despite talk of things such as
41:24
Speaker 1: freedom of expression and a relaxing of the security services
41:28
Speaker 1: and state censorship. However, in two thousand and four, as
41:33
Speaker 1: new elections loomed, Kramenae and the Guardian Council moved to
41:37
Speaker 1: heavily restrict the number of reformist candidates that would be
41:41
Speaker 1: allowed to stand for election. Khatamib was prohibited from standing again,
41:46
Speaker 1: as there is a two term limit on presidents in Iran.
41:50
Speaker 1: More importantly, however, his reform agenda was more widely crushed
41:54
Speaker 1: and the Reform Era came to an end. Since two
41:58
Speaker 1: thousand and five, the Mane and the clerics have exercised
42:02
Speaker 1: greater control over the country's politics, and there has been
42:05
Speaker 1: a major conservative backlash. The backlash against the reform era
42:13
Speaker 1: of Ratami's time as president was partly owing to the
42:17
Speaker 1: fear Khamenee might be overthrown in future if the liberalisation
42:22
Speaker 1: of Iranian society continued. The clearest manifestation of opposition to
42:26
Speaker 1: his regime at this time occurred in mid July nineteen
42:30
Speaker 1: ninety nine. Protests began in Tehran after the shutting down
42:35
Speaker 1: of Salam, a daily newspaper published in the capital between
42:39
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one and nineteen ninety nine. The paper was
42:43
Speaker 1: ordered to cease its operations on the seventh of July
42:46
Speaker 1: after it published a report on the internal workings of
42:49
Speaker 1: the government. A day later, students in Tehran began protesting
42:54
Speaker 1: its closure. The protests grew in the days that followed,
42:58
Speaker 1: leading to clashes with police, riots, violence, and over a
43:02
Speaker 1: dozen deaths. Well over a thousand protesters were eventually arrested,
43:07
Speaker 1: in the largest demonstrations against the government since the Iranian
43:11
Speaker 1: Revolution twenty years earlier. The protests in nineteen ninety nine
43:15
Speaker 1: were an important moment in Khmenee's drift towards a more
43:19
Speaker 1: conservative and reactionary stance on Iran's politics. Ten years later,
43:25
Speaker 1: the Green movement that had first emerged in the summer
43:28
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety nine, protested again to mark the decade
43:32
Speaker 1: anniversary of the first opposition and also to object to
43:36
Speaker 1: the re election of Khatami's successor as president, Mahmoud Ahmadinajad.
43:41
Speaker 1: Ahmadinajad defeated his reformist rival, mir Hussein Musavi with sixty
43:47
Speaker 1: three percent of the vote. This was a comfortable majority,
43:51
Speaker 1: but the result was disputed, and there is little doubt
43:54
Speaker 1: that Rahmenee had ordered the election to be rigged, returning
43:58
Speaker 1: Ahmadinajad to power. As millions of Iranians protested. In response
44:03
Speaker 1: to the result, Ramenee ordered a partial recount of ten
44:07
Speaker 1: per cent of the ballots to try to appease public opinion.
44:11
Speaker 1: Beyond this, he ordered the Republican Guard Corps to engage
44:15
Speaker 1: in mass arrests. The Internet was heavily censored to block
44:19
Speaker 1: discussion of the election results. Rallies were banned, and universities
44:24
Speaker 1: were temporarily closed. The two thousand nine protests saw Iran
44:29
Speaker 1: shift even further towards a harsher form of authoritarianism. Under Kmenae,
44:38
Speaker 1: political manipulation has been accompanied by a growing system of
44:42
Speaker 1: surveillance and incarceration as Ramenee has become more conservative and
44:47
Speaker 1: authoritarian since the two thousands. There have always been security
44:52
Speaker 1: services within the Islamic Republic that acted as successors to
44:56
Speaker 1: Savak and its actions during the era of the Shah.
45:00
Speaker 1: Ramenee reorganized these shortly after coming to power when he
45:05
Speaker 1: created the Police Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran
45:09
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two. Police Command is an umbrella organization
45:13
Speaker 1: for the security forces, which employs over a quarter of
45:17
Speaker 1: a million people. In the summer of two thousand and five,
45:21
Speaker 1: just as Ratami's reform era was coming to an end,
45:25
Speaker 1: Ramenee ordered the creation of a new unit within the
45:28
Speaker 1: Police Command. This is known as Guidance Patrol. Though its
45:34
Speaker 1: native name is gusht r Erschad, it is more colloquially
45:38
Speaker 1: referred to as the Morality Police. Its members enforce elements
45:43
Speaker 1: of Sharia law in the country, notably around female dress codes.
45:48
Speaker 1: The gusht her Erschad reports directly to Ramenee, not to
45:52
Speaker 1: the civilian government. In twenty twenty two, The unit guarded
45:57
Speaker 1: international headlines after they effectively merge dded a young woman
46:01
Speaker 1: named Marsa Amini while in custody for a minor infringement
46:05
Speaker 1: of the law on headscarves. Her death triggered fresh mass
46:10
Speaker 1: protests around Iran. It also brought attention to the role
46:13
Speaker 1: of the notorious av in prison in the regime, a
46:17
Speaker 1: place known for torture and rampant human rights abuses. These
46:21
Speaker 1: are instruments of Ramenae's repressive rule in Iran, which emerged
46:26
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine, a system which had deteriorated in
46:30
Speaker 1: particular since the mid two thousands. Ramonae's regime has undeniably
46:38
Speaker 1: demonstrated brutality in its clamping down on opposition and its
46:43
Speaker 1: general authoritarianism. However, it must also be said that its
46:47
Speaker 1: methods have been effective from a purely practical standpoint, in
46:52
Speaker 1: keeping the regime and the Ayatollah in power over many decades.
46:56
Speaker 1: There is no clearer sign of this than the events
46:59
Speaker 1: of twenty eleventh and twenty twelve. In December twenty ten,
47:03
Speaker 1: what would become known as the Arab Spring started in Tunisia. Here,
47:09
Speaker 1: a young man named Mohammad Wuazizi set himself on fire
47:13
Speaker 1: in protest against the corruption and authoritarianism of the government
47:17
Speaker 1: of President zin El Abadeen ben Ali. In the spring
47:22
Speaker 1: of twenty eleven, the protests spread across the Marghreb and
47:26
Speaker 1: the Middle East. The Arab Spring led to the overthrow
47:29
Speaker 1: of governments in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, also sparking the
47:34
Speaker 1: long running civil war in Syria. Protests were seen in
47:38
Speaker 1: many other neighbouring countries, and Iran was no exception. The
47:42
Speaker 1: fourteenth of February twenty eleven became known as the Day
47:46
Speaker 1: of Rage, as thousands of protesters gathered in the streets
47:50
Speaker 1: of Tehran to signal their opposition to the conservatism of
47:54
Speaker 1: the Ayatollahs government. This was how the Egyptian Revolution started
47:58
Speaker 1: in twenty eleven, with crowds of protesters gathering in Tahrir
48:03
Speaker 1: Square in Cairo from the twenty fifth of January, eventually
48:07
Speaker 1: resulting in the downfall of Egypt's ruler Hosni Mubarak. Ramenee
48:12
Speaker 1: was determined that the protests in Tehran would not be
48:16
Speaker 1: allowed to grow and sent in the Guard Corps and
48:20
Speaker 1: other units to crush the opposition. Hezbalah units from Lebanon
48:24
Speaker 1: were even involved. Thus, while protests continued intermittently around the
48:30
Speaker 1: country into March twenty eleven, and there was an effort
48:33
Speaker 1: to revive the movement on its anniversary in February twenty twelve,
48:37
Speaker 1: the Arab Spring was never allowed to take off in
48:40
Speaker 1: Iran under Ramenai's rule. Iran's need for domestic stability and
48:48
Speaker 1: control is partly a response to its international position. There
48:52
Speaker 1: is no doubt that the regime had faced opposition from
48:55
Speaker 1: beyond its border. The United States has been an enemy
48:59
Speaker 1: since the host Stage Crisis that followed immediately after the
49:02
Speaker 1: Iranian Revolution, while Iran has framed itself as the primary
49:07
Speaker 1: opponent of Israel in the Middle East. That being said,
49:11
Speaker 1: there is a kind of before and after element to
49:13
Speaker 1: Ramenee's foreign policy, which is similar to his approach to
49:17
Speaker 1: domestic affairs. Things were more moderate prior to the mid
49:21
Speaker 1: two thousands. Iran was conscious of its position next to
49:25
Speaker 1: Iraq at the time of the First Gulf War. Then
49:28
Speaker 1: it was extremely sensitive to wider developments in the Middle
49:32
Speaker 1: East and Central Asia. In the two thousands, as the
49:35
Speaker 1: US invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq in two thousand
49:40
Speaker 1: and one and two thousand three. Ramenaee condemned the September eleventh,
49:45
Speaker 1: two thousand and one attacks on the U S that
49:48
Speaker 1: prefaced these wars. Though he was critical of the wars
49:51
Speaker 1: which the U S subsequently engaged in, many within his
49:56
Speaker 1: regime feared that if the U S was successful, it
49:59
Speaker 1: would move to engage in regime change in Iran after Iraq.
50:04
Speaker 1: As it turned out, the US became bogged down in
50:07
Speaker 1: costly insurgency wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, effectively losing
50:12
Speaker 1: both wars in the end in costly withdrawals. While relations
50:17
Speaker 1: between Iran and the US thought somewhat during the period
50:21
Speaker 1: of Barack Obama's presidency, Ramenae and Iran, through their proxies,
50:26
Speaker 1: Hezbollah and Ramas continued to wage undeclared war on Israel,
50:31
Speaker 1: a key US ally in the Middle East. Hezbullah and
50:35
Speaker 1: Israel fought a short, though destructive war over five weeks
50:39
Speaker 1: in the summer of two thousand and six, in which
50:42
Speaker 1: thousands of Iranian missiles were fired at the Israelis. Ramas
50:46
Speaker 1: and Israel fought four separate wars between two thousand eight
50:51
Speaker 1: and twenty twenty one, a major disruption in another Middle
50:58
Speaker 1: Eastern country in twenty forty, Eve presented an opportunity for
51:02
Speaker 1: Ramenee and his government to extend their proxy network even further. Yemen,
51:07
Speaker 1: in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula, was only unified
51:11
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety. Prior to this, it had been two
51:15
Speaker 1: entities throughout the twentieth century, with part of the country
51:18
Speaker 1: having been a British colony in a strategic location guarding
51:22
Speaker 1: the mouth of the Red Sea from eighteen thirty nine
51:25
Speaker 1: to nineteen sixty three. The newly unified Yemen saw problems
51:29
Speaker 1: emerge based on tribal divisions. These boiled over in twenty fourteen,
51:35
Speaker 1: when the long running Yemen Civil War commenced. Fighting took
51:39
Speaker 1: place between the pre war established government and the powerful Huties.
51:44
Speaker 1: The latter is a Shia Muslim group which enjoyed support
51:47
Speaker 1: from Kramenai's government in Iran. In contrast, the established government,
51:53
Speaker 1: elements of which fled over the border to Saudi Arabia,
51:56
Speaker 1: were supported by Riad and several Western powers. Indeed, Iran
52:01
Speaker 1: had been supporting the Hutis by sending them weapons and
52:04
Speaker 1: other material support since as far back as two thousand
52:08
Speaker 1: and nine, It could be argued that were it not
52:11
Speaker 1: for the Iranian support in the years before it commenced,
52:14
Speaker 1: the Yemen Civil War might not have erupted. Since twenty fourteen,
52:19
Speaker 1: the war there has acted as a proxy conflict between
52:23
Speaker 1: Sheer Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia. This is part of
52:27
Speaker 1: a wider geopolitical cold war between the two countries, as
52:31
Speaker 1: both seek to become the dominant Muslim power in the region.
52:35
Speaker 1: That said, there has been a distinct lightning of tensions
52:39
Speaker 1: between the two nations in twenty twenty four and twenty
52:42
Speaker 1: twenty five, as the war between Israel and Iran's proxies
52:46
Speaker 1: in Gaza and Lebanon, and even Iran itself has fled. Meanwhile,
52:51
Speaker 1: the Huties have had the better of the fighting generally
52:54
Speaker 1: in Yemen and have controlled the capital Sannah for the
52:58
Speaker 1: duration of the conflict. Their control over this geographically strategic
53:03
Speaker 1: region has allowed Iran to threaten shipping in the Red
53:06
Speaker 1: Sea and by extension, the Suiz Canal in recent times.
53:14
Speaker 1: The Yemen Civil War raises a bigger question about Iran's
53:17
Speaker 1: relations with its other Middle Eastern neighbours. Under Khamenei, as
53:22
Speaker 1: a Shiate nation, the Islamic Republic has been naturally opposed
53:26
Speaker 1: to many of its neighbours, where the majority of Muslim
53:29
Speaker 1: nations are Sunni Muslim. Moreover, while the vast majority of
53:34
Speaker 1: Middle Eastern countries are identified as having a primarily Arab
53:38
Speaker 1: ethnic population, the dominant ethnic group in Iran are Persians,
53:43
Speaker 1: although groups like the Kurds and Balachs make up substantial minorities.
53:48
Speaker 1: Iranians speak Farsi, whereas Arabic is the official tongue of
53:52
Speaker 1: most Middle Eastern nations. This outsider status of Iran within
53:57
Speaker 1: the Middle East is not exactly a result of any
54:00
Speaker 1: policies pursued by Ramenee as Supreme leader. They are instead
54:05
Speaker 1: historically rooted differences stretching back to medieval times. However, Kramenee
54:11
Speaker 1: has not exactly done anything to try to cultivate closer
54:15
Speaker 1: bonds with neighbouring nations either. For instance, Iran has quarreled
54:19
Speaker 1: with its northern neighbour Azerbaijan over its close ties with
54:23
Speaker 1: the Western world. Ramenee condemned the United Arab Emirates attempted
54:28
Speaker 1: normalization of relations with Israel in recent years, and its
54:32
Speaker 1: overly Western liberal style society in addition, there have been
54:37
Speaker 1: several incidents of attacks by the Huthis on the UAE
54:41
Speaker 1: over the years. Conversely, Iran generally enjoys good relations with
54:48
Speaker 1: its closest neighbours in the Persian Gulf. These are Kata,
54:53
Speaker 1: with whom it shares control of the South Pars gas Field,
54:57
Speaker 1: the largest gas field in the world, and Oman. Although
55:02
Speaker 1: Iraq was traditionally Iran's bitter enemy in the region, since
55:06
Speaker 1: the end of the u S occupation of the country,
55:08
Speaker 1: the Shia majority there has found expression and Iraq has
55:12
Speaker 1: become something of a regional ally. Furthermore, to compensate for
55:16
Speaker 1: its lack of numerous allies in the Middle East and
55:19
Speaker 1: Central Asia, Ramenei has cultivated particularly close relations with Vladimir
55:25
Speaker 1: Putin of Russia and Shijin Ping of China. Iran also
55:30
Speaker 1: remains a member of OPEK, the petroleum Kartel led by
55:34
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, and has growing bilateral ties with many of
55:37
Speaker 1: the former Soviet nations in Central Asia. As such, Iran
55:42
Speaker 1: is not as isolated as Western media outlets often portray
55:46
Speaker 1: it as being. If there has been a tendency to
55:52
Speaker 1: portray Iran as an isolated and paria state, it is
55:56
Speaker 1: surely a result of the economic sanctions which it has
55:59
Speaker 1: been under for decades. These have limited its ability to
56:04
Speaker 1: trade freely with other nations, particularly when it comes to
56:07
Speaker 1: selling oil, the basis of its economy. The first sanctions
56:12
Speaker 1: imposed against Iran began in November nineteen seventy nine. In
56:16
Speaker 1: that year, the United States placed economic restrictions on the
56:20
Speaker 1: country in response to the Iran hostage crisis, when dozens
56:24
Speaker 1: of people that the US embassy in Tehran had taken hostage.
56:28
Speaker 1: The sanctions were lifted in nineteen eighty one when the
56:31
Speaker 1: hostage crisis ended. However, they were reimposed in nineteen eighty seven,
56:36
Speaker 1: in part because the US had supported Sadame Hussein in
56:39
Speaker 1: the Iran Iraq War, although there were other complicating factors
56:44
Speaker 1: behind this. Under Ramenai's leadership, the sanctions issue has coalesced
56:49
Speaker 1: around the issue of Iran's nuclear program. The severity of
56:53
Speaker 1: the Western sanctions have been increased or decreased based on
56:57
Speaker 1: whether or not Iran appears to be cooperate rating with
57:00
Speaker 1: international oversight of its nuclear program. The sanctions have also
57:08
Speaker 1: followed the Iranian regimes alleged enrichment of uranium, with the
57:12
Speaker 1: ultimate goal of Iran becoming a nuclear armed nation. Many
57:16
Speaker 1: of these sanctions are imposed by the United Nations. They
57:20
Speaker 1: were loosened considerably in twenty fifteen when Kramenee agreed to
57:24
Speaker 1: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the government of
57:27
Speaker 1: President Barack Obama. However, three years later, Obama's successor, Donald Trump,
57:33
Speaker 1: unilaterally withdrew the US from the agreement. The issue of
57:38
Speaker 1: Western sanctions has been a major factor in Iranian politics
57:41
Speaker 1: under Kramenai's rule, and more generally, in the global politics
57:46
Speaker 1: of oil since nineteen seventy nine. Despite the sanctions and
57:52
Speaker 1: the difficulties they created for Iran's economy, the country's international
57:57
Speaker 1: position under Kramenaz seemed fairly strong until twenty twenty four.
58:02
Speaker 1: Its Huti proxies were winning the civil war in Yemen,
58:06
Speaker 1: its influence was expanding in Iraq. It maintained proxies in
58:10
Speaker 1: the shape of Hezbulah and Hamas that basically controlled the
58:14
Speaker 1: south of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. It was also
58:17
Speaker 1: developing seemingly ever closer ties with China and Russia, the
58:22
Speaker 1: latter of which Tehran was supplying with large amounts of
58:25
Speaker 1: drones for its war against Ukraine. Then, on the seventh
58:29
Speaker 1: of October twenty twenty three, Hamas launched a series of
58:33
Speaker 1: incursions into Israel, killing nearly one thousand, two hundred people,
58:38
Speaker 1: taking two hundred and fifty one people hostage, and committing
58:41
Speaker 1: a series of atrocities in parts of Israel near the
58:44
Speaker 1: Gaza Strip. The subsequent retaliation is well known. Israel launched
58:50
Speaker 1: a large military campaign into the Gaza Strip, which has
58:53
Speaker 1: destroyed most of the enclave. In response, Hesbulah began firing
58:58
Speaker 1: rockets into northern Israel, and the Hutis began disrupting shipping
59:02
Speaker 1: in the Red Sea. The resulting clashes have seen Iran's
59:09
Speaker 1: proxies virtually dismantled. The uties have been bombed extensively by
59:14
Speaker 1: the United States. Hamas has been crippled, though not entirely destroyed.
59:19
Speaker 1: Hezbullah was severely rocked by both a strike against its
59:23
Speaker 1: leadership and against its military capabilities in southern Lebanon. The
59:27
Speaker 1: first attack consisted of an extraordinary coordinated strike on thousands
59:33
Speaker 1: of hes Bula's members using their walkie talkie devices, which
59:37
Speaker 1: Israel had managed to intercept and place explosives. In the second,
59:42
Speaker 1: Israeli strike came in a series of bombing campaigns against
59:46
Speaker 1: Beirut and other parts of Lebanon. In April, July and
59:50
Speaker 1: October twenty twenty four, Iran and Israel began trading direct
59:54
Speaker 1: missile attacks across the Middle East. Then, on the thirteenth
59:59
Speaker 1: of June twenty two, twenty five, Israel effectively went to
1:00:02
Speaker 1: war with Iran by launching a series of coordinated attacks
1:00:06
Speaker 1: on the country's nuclear and military infrastructure. Many of Iran's
1:00:11
Speaker 1: leading military officers, politicians, and nuclear scientists were killed in
1:00:16
Speaker 1: precision attacks. Ramenee went into hiding and relaid information about
1:00:21
Speaker 1: the succession should he be assassinated as well. Days later,
1:00:26
Speaker 1: the United States also engaged in bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.
1:00:31
Speaker 1: It is clear that both Israel and Iran would welcome
1:00:34
Speaker 1: the overthrow of Ramenee and his regime. From within, Iran
1:00:39
Speaker 1: had appeared relatively strong and a threat to Western interests
1:00:42
Speaker 1: at the start of twenty twenty four. However, despite Kramenee's
1:00:47
Speaker 1: lifelong efforts to build it up as a regional military power,
1:00:51
Speaker 1: Iran has been revealed to be something of a paper tiger,
1:00:55
Speaker 1: unable to fight back against the superior military capabilities of
1:00:59
Speaker 1: Israel and the USA. Ramana's position was weakened by the
1:01:06
Speaker 1: attacks of June twenty twenty five. Furthermore, the bombings did
1:01:11
Speaker 1: not bring tensions with Israel and the US to an end,
1:01:15
Speaker 1: as analysts established that the attacks had only slowed Iran's
1:01:19
Speaker 1: nuclear program temporarily, rather than critically undermining it. By the
1:01:24
Speaker 1: end of twenty twenty five, fresh talks were underway about
1:01:28
Speaker 1: a new nuclear deal. Simultaneously, protests against the regime erupted
1:01:33
Speaker 1: on the twenty eighth of December twenty twenty five. Within Iran,
1:01:38
Speaker 1: These showed that Rahmanee's grip over the country was gravely weakened. Furthermore,
1:01:44
Speaker 1: buoyed by a successful operation to remove Nicolas Maduro from
1:01:47
Speaker 1: power in Venezuela on the third of January twenty twenty six,
1:01:52
Speaker 1: the Drump administration in Washington was more confrontational in its
1:01:56
Speaker 1: approach to Iran. It was also critical of the brutal
1:02:00
Speaker 1: crackdown on protests in Iran, where thousands of people were
1:02:04
Speaker 1: killed in the space of a few weeks by security forces.
1:02:08
Speaker 1: Even as talks continued, US aircraft carriers and other military
1:02:12
Speaker 1: resources were moved to the Persian Gulf by the U S.
1:02:16
Speaker 1: Early on the twenty eighth of February twenty twenty six,
1:02:19
Speaker 1: joint US and Israeli attacks on Iran commenced. Ramanee's compound
1:02:25
Speaker 1: in Tehran was hit at around nine thirty a m.
1:02:29
Speaker 1: Local time. While his death was not confirmed immediately, the
1:02:33
Speaker 1: Iranian regime stated that Ramanee would deliver an address to
1:02:37
Speaker 1: the nation that afternoon about the developing war, but this
1:02:42
Speaker 1: did not happen. That evening. The Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu
1:02:47
Speaker 1: stated that Ramanee had probably been killed in the strikes
1:02:51
Speaker 1: on Tehran earlier that day. Reuters and other news agencies
1:02:56
Speaker 1: confirmed this an hour later. Ali Kramenai was one of
1:03:03
Speaker 1: the longest ruling leaders anywhere in the world today. When
1:03:07
Speaker 1: he originally came to power as Supreme Leader of the
1:03:10
Speaker 1: Islamic Republic of Iran in nineteen eighty nine, the Cold
1:03:13
Speaker 1: War was still underway. To the north of his country,
1:03:17
Speaker 1: The USSR controlled large parts of Central Asia, and the
1:03:21
Speaker 1: Middle East remained a relatively undeveloped part of the world
1:03:24
Speaker 1: that was only starting to fully benefit from being the
1:03:27
Speaker 1: world's great repository of oil. Back then, virtually every Muslim
1:03:32
Speaker 1: country in the region was opposed to Israel's existence to
1:03:35
Speaker 1: one degree or another. The Middle East is a very
1:03:39
Speaker 1: different place today. Kramenae's life saw even greater changes. When
1:03:44
Speaker 1: he was first born, the country was under the rule
1:03:47
Speaker 1: of the First Shah and was arguably the most secular
1:03:50
Speaker 1: country in the region. Under independent, non Western rule, his
1:03:55
Speaker 1: life has been shaped by the Iranian Revolution, which exploded
1:03:58
Speaker 1: at the end of the nineteen seven ties, and which
1:04:01
Speaker 1: came to be led by his old teacher, the Aya Tolhremeni.
1:04:05
Speaker 1: Ali largely managed to become his successor in nineteen eighty
1:04:08
Speaker 1: nine through a bit of peculiar luck. One president was
1:04:13
Speaker 1: impeached in the summer of nineteen eighty one, then a
1:04:16
Speaker 1: second was assassinated after twenty nine days in the job,
1:04:20
Speaker 1: paving the way for kramene to become the third president
1:04:23
Speaker 1: of Iran late in nineteen eighty one. He used his
1:04:27
Speaker 1: position as a springboard to become the successor to Aya
1:04:30
Speaker 1: Tolhremeni as Supreme leader in nineteen eighty nine. In that position,
1:04:36
Speaker 1: he has led Iran as a religious state, the primary
1:04:39
Speaker 1: purpose of which is to oppose Israel. For many years,
1:04:43
Speaker 1: it appeared as though this was working. Iran built up
1:04:47
Speaker 1: a powerful proxy network in the region and developed strong
1:04:50
Speaker 1: alliances with China and Russia. However, the events of twenty
1:04:54
Speaker 1: twenty four and twenty twenty five have revealed how hollow
1:04:58
Speaker 1: his rule has been. Ramenee's proxy network has been completely
1:05:03
Speaker 1: compromised by Israeli and American attacks in the summer of
1:05:07
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Many will argue that these attacks constitute
1:05:12
Speaker 1: an attack on the sovereignty of an independent nation without
1:05:16
Speaker 1: legal justification. But the greater issue from the perspective of
1:05:20
Speaker 1: ordinary Iranians must surely be that the country's struggle under
1:05:24
Speaker 1: economic sanctions and other restrictions for decades under Hamenee's rule
1:05:29
Speaker 1: has all been for very little. Where will Iran go thereafter?
1:05:35
Speaker 1: Will it continue along the same conservative, authoritarian religious path
1:05:39
Speaker 1: that it is on today, or will the reform movement
1:05:43
Speaker 1: which hamene dismantled in the two thousands re emerge to
1:05:46
Speaker 1: fashion a more liberal Iran. What do you think of
1:05:53
Speaker 1: Iotola Ali Ramenee? Has his rule been a disaster for
1:05:57
Speaker 1: Iran that has led to authoritarian repression and crippling economic
1:06:01
Speaker 1: sanctions As the regime pursues its never ending crusade against
1:06:05
Speaker 1: Israel and the West or does Iran have legitimate grievances
1:06:10
Speaker 1: about the way it has been treated by the international
1:06:13
Speaker 1: community during his time as head of state. Please let
1:06:18
Speaker 1: us know in the comment section and in the meantime.
1:06:21
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for watching.
1:07:02
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