Gravitas Live | Gravitas Exclusive: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran's ties with India have more potent

[Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] good evening and welcome to gravitas and let's get started [Music] do you think that this new government under president ricey represents the will of the people of iran and if people are not there no positive development is going to occur who do they not trust the managers and decision makers of iran the answer is clear you said that neighbors uh should not meddle and enforce the will of the afghan people i want to know which neighbors according to you are meddling all the neighbors including iran yes year one pakistan american withdrawal and a botched up withdrawal has pushed afghanistan towards another civil war and in fact they have new plots it's been designed and they are supporting the taliban the government in kabul has been accusing pakistan of supporting taliban terrorists anybody in any part of the world tries to force upon others its will by weapons and arms it's going to be serious threat and danger to all nations and countries under hassan rouhani iran made a major foreign policy shift elevating its ties with beijing do you think that will have a bearing on iran's relationships with other partners including india cooperation between iran and india is far what the capacity of the contract between iran and [Music] china yesterday we on broke the story of india's foreign minister esther shankar going to tehran for the swearing-in ceremony of the next president ibrahim risi tonight we bring you an exclusive interview with a former president of the same country mahmoud abandon a fire brand leader who was barred from contesting this election in iran he came to india as president back in 2008 he pushed for energy projects with india and today he said that iran's partnership with india has more potential than its engagements with china in fact he said the 400 billion program between tehran and beijing is a matter of debate in iran and the iranian people look at the chinese deal with doubt he also spoke about pakistan and its role in destabilizing afghanistan he spoke about america and its relationship with the taliban also the crises in his own country from the drought to the pandemic and the dwindling economy there's a lot for the incoming leader to deal with these are challenges for president ricey when he takes charge but the biggest challenge according to former president ahmed nijad is regaining the trust of the iranian people we'll bring you excerpts on the show also on gravitas tonight china is on top of the olympics medal tally yet chinese winners are being branded traitors all thanks to beijing's brand of toxic nationalism we'll explain why is north korea suddenly keen on talks reports say kim jong-un will discuss denuclearization in return for fine liquor and suits talk about priorities the pandemic has meant bad news for businesses the world over unless you're in the business of technology a special report on how big tech has grown bigger we begin as always with gravitas global headlines [Music] amid escalating violence in afghanistan the un assistance mission to the country has said at least 40 civilians have been killed and at least 118 have been injured in the besieged city of lashkarga in the last 24 hours [Music] as tensions rise over the attack on an israeli-linked tanker israel the united states and the united kingdom have accused iran of carrying out the attack we've conducted a thorough review and we're confident that iran carried out this attack u.s secretary of state anthony blinken has vowed collective response and uk prime minister boris johnson has said iran must face consequences meanwhile iran says it will respond promptly to any threat against its security a belarusian activist living in exile in ukraine was found hanging in a park in ukraine's capital kiev a day after being reported missing ukrainian police have launched a murder investigation vitaly shishoff led a kiev-based organization that helps belarusians fleeing persecution [Music] japan has released the names of three people who broke quarantine rules after returning from overseas threatening its citizens with public shaming and naming if they fail to comply with coronavirus border control measures travelers from overseas including its own citizens need to self-quarantine for two weeks at least 3 000 ethiopian refugees have reportedly played into sudan this week following the spread of the war in ethiopia's tigrade to the neighbouring amara region according to the sudanese authorities thousands of ethiopian refugees crossed the border last week palestinians called for change as they rallied in ramallah city to denounce president mahmoud abbas following the arrest and death in custody of activist nizar banat last month indian markets have recorded their sharpest intraday gains in three months the nifty hit 16 000 for the first time while the same-sex was up over 500 points at 53 451. turkish firefighters continue to battle devastating wildfires with 16 planes and 51 helicopters racing against time to tackle the blazes in three coastal towns the european union has said it had helped mobilize three firefighting planes to help the turkish cruise norway's cast in warhol became the first man to breach the 46 second mark as he stormed to the 400 meter hurdles gold at the tokyo olympics warholm's great rival ray benjamin of the us also finished half a second under the existing world record but was relegated to silva meanwhile jamaican elaine thompson hera became the first woman to complete the sprint double at successive olympics after a gold in the 200 meters to add to her 100 meter victory [Music] the indian men's hockey team will fight for the bronze medal at the tokyo olympics after a defeat to world champions belgium in the semi-finals india had fought back from an early goal down to lead 2-1 but the red lion scored three goals in the final quarter to win 5-2 and enter a second consecutive olympic final where they will face australia for the gold india will take on germany in the bronze play-off on thursday we begin tonight with an exclusive interview you've spoken to the former president of iran mahmoud ahmadinejad why is this significant in four days from now ricey will take oath as the eighth president of iran today he was officially endorsed as iran supreme by iran's supreme leader ayatollah khamenei indian external affairs minister sj shankar will travel to tehran for the swearing-in pricey enters office at an extremely challenging time for his country the economy is in a bad shape the pandemic is making life difficult there's an acute water shortage thousands of people have taken to the streets they accuse the government of iran of failing to provide basic necessities the challenges for icy are many and now a former president is speaking against him saying that he must first restore national trust we're talking about former president mahmoud ahmadinejad the man who served as iran's president from 2005 to 2013 the original hardliner of iran who rapidly advanced the iran's nuclear program to challenge the west we spoke to him earlier today ahmed najal has serious doubts about the incoming government and about its credibility he says the economy and the pandemic have been mismanaged he also casts doubts on iran's dealings with china saying the partnership with india has far more potential he spoke about pakistan's role in afghanistan and america's relationship with the taliban here are excerpts from the conversation i had with him earlier today mr president welcome to beyond thank you very much you wanted to contest this election yourself but you were barred from contesting bad from running and uh i understand you did not even vote in this election in an earlier interview you've said and i'm quoting uh that you will not participate in the election if the will of the millions of people is denied for no legitimate reason like it has been in the past do you think that this new government under president ricey represents the will of the people of iran everywhere things are based on people and the the energy that propels the country and takes it forward is the will of the people and if people are not there no positive development is gonna occur the governments are entitled to nothing but propelling and developing the will of the people i agree and yet i repeat my question do you think that this new government represents the will of the people of iran i made my reply what are the the challenges do you believe that the iranian leadership faces uh and and should be their priority right now both the economic situation and social situation is in a dire one and also relations with neighbors and international relations are facing serious challenges and above all he distrust and the public distrust of whom of the public who do they not trust the people they don't trust the managers and decision makers of iran the answer is clear so you're saying that the people of iran do not trust the decision makers of the of of the country i'm assuming that means the government the people of iran are also protesting uh we've been reporting on major crises uh unfolding in iran a serious water shortage power cuts people taking to the streets and some of them have been fired upon by the security forces what do you make of the situation the most important issue is the restoration of the national trust which needs to occur how do you assess the impact of the pandemic on iran and do you think the government has done a good job in ensuring that the impact is minimal unfortunately the government's management of the pandemic has been very very bad and today we have a public dissatisfaction because of this i.e above the covet the wick management has damaged iran's economy another developing story in the region is afghanistan iran is trying to play the role of a mediator in afghanistan first of all how do you assess the way things are going i think the situation in afghanistan is both to the detriment of the afghan nation and also to that of all the original nations anybody who is willing to help should do their best to ensure that the will of the afghan nation is implemented and this is going to occur when the real representatives of the afghan nation make the decisions agreement between groups does not bring about any peace but rather it is a division dividing of power what brings about peace tranquility and security is the enforcement of the public will of the afghan nation and their neighboring original countries ultra regional states should not meddle first but they should help the will of the afghan people you said that neighbors enforce the will of the afghan people i want to know which neighbors according to you are meddling all the neighbors including iran yes iran pakistan india china and the um persian gulf countries nato and russia none of them should meddle in the afghan nations at first do you think uh talking to the taliban uh and and striving towards this peace deal was a good idea legitimizing the taliban when you say that the will of the afghan people some say that the taliban are also of gun people others say that taliban are not a legitimate entity political entity the people of afghanistan should elect their representatives and none of these groups are the representatives of the people of afghanistan and this is only possible in a and through a free election if any group takes weapons and attacks and occupies some parts cannot consider themselves the representative of the nation and also the um and entitled to rights if we accept this kind of logic then we will be accepting that the entire world would uh always be unstable and whoever is more violent would be dominant then rights and laws would be meaningless i agree in an ideal world there should be election but the situation in afghanistan is not conducive to holding an election as you would be aware do you believe that the american withdrawal and a botched up withdrawal as we've been calling it has pushed afghanistan towards another civil war if the u.s and others don't support the taliban by providing weapons and also providing logistic financial and promotion wise in regard to the taliban then the taliban would not be able to endanger the security of afghanistan and if the americans and others go away and keep out of this problems would more quickly be resolved i believe that the americans have in practice not gone out of the region and in fact they have a new plot has been designed and they are supporting the taliban and in the near future the taliban will resort to the slogan of the great horizon and bring about a war and conflict to the entire region you're saying the americans are supporting the taliban it is definitely so and in fact the taliban is part of the american plot what do you make of pakistan's role the government in kabul has been accusing pakistan of supporting taliban terrorists as they try to take control of the territory what i said is addressing everybody all those who are supporting the taliban should know that if the taliban is settled down and takes power they will soon revolt against themselves and endanger their security is that for pakistan yes surely it is anybody in any part of the world who considers themselves as the basis and uh the symbol of a religion and it tries to force upon others its will by weapons and arms is gonna be serious threat and danger to all nations and countries as president of iran you visited india and you pushed for what was called the peace pipeline how do you see the relationship between tehran and new delhi as of today i think we belong to a joint cultural domain and our areas for proximity are very very much so the volume of communications that we have today compared to our capacity and commonalities is extremely small and as a fundamental strategy we need to do our best to ensure that we have we utilize the maximum available capacity we love the people of india very much when we travel to india we feel we are at home the people of india are extremely intimate they are extremely lovely they are so kind and also justice sticking and the cultural proximities are shared among the two nations and are very different do you believe the new administration is going to take forward ties with india i think it's a strategy that the two countries need to pursue and there's no other way accept us under hassan rouhani iran made a major foreign policy shift elevating its ties with beijing there was a 400 billion dollar record that was signed that dictates the roadmap of iran's relationship with china for the next 25 years uh do you think that will have a bearing on iran's relationships with other partners including india in iran there's been a lot of debate over that country and it's ongoing i think that the potential of cooperation between iran and india is far actually more is much more than what the capacity of the contract between iran and china is now being discussed so how do you see this uh growing proximity with china in relationships it is the basis that all nations and countries have relations with each other and utilize the maximum potential but i believe that the capacity that exists between iran and india is much higher than relationships with other countries chinese investment in various countries has been met with skepticism and increasing debt do you think that's a threat that iran should worry about as i said before in any agreement justice and respect should be observed and the rights of the two parties should be balanced regarding the china deal no clear information has been published in iran and that's why the iranian people look at it were doubt interesting you're a politician but you speak like a diplomat nonetheless it was a pleasure talking to you mahmoud ahmadinejad thank you very much for being with us please convey my war and special greetings to the lovely people of india post the first world war boundaries in europe had to be redrawn new countries had to be created that was the price of peace in those times now in the middle of a pandemic the afghan taliban wants the country's president to step down it is a price of peace as quoted by a terror group peace you see is an expensive commodity that is unless you happen to be looking at north korea there the supreme leader is happy exchanging peace for fine liquor our next story is neither about austria-hungary nor the taliban it is about kim jong-un the dictator of north korea he is ready to talk denuclearization in exchange for fine liquor and suits north korean dictator kim jong-un is in a fix his country has been overrun by the pandemic drowned by floods and overwhelmed by a food crisis even after military and emergency reserves were released pyongyang found itself 1 million tons short on rice misery stricken kim was forced to re-engage with the world in july north korea restored hotlines with the south one of the first messages was addressed to the united states what did it say north korea is ready to restart denuclearization talks but not without conditions pyongyang said the us must first lift sanctions this includes the ban on metal exports import of refined fuel luxury goods fine liquor and suits we are talking armani and bulgari who needs luxury in the middle of a crisis well a member of the south korean parliamentary intelligence committee said i asked which necessities they want the most and they said high-class liquors and suits which included not just for kim jong-un's own consumption but to distribute to pyongyang's elite will the u.s open the liquor tab to ensure the flow of conversation let's get some context here north korea has heaps of sanctions imposed on it some are by the united nations security council some by the united states then there are also sanctions from japan and south korea the ban on luxury goods was imposed by the un can washington lobby for its removal well not single-handedly what it can do is lift its own sanctions on north korea america has done that in the past in 2018 there were talks of denuclearization kim jong-un had met then-u.s president donald trump in singapore the two went for walks and even posed for the shutters the next year the two leaders met in vietnam there the talks were cut short it was all about the sanctions complaint trump reuters reported that pyongyang wanted all u.n sanctions lifted in exchange of partial closure of a nuclear plant washington did not agree and the dprk leader went back home only to start firing a barrage of missiles cut to 2021 donald trump is out of office and a new leader has emerged in pyongyang kim yo-jong she is kim jong-un's sister and reportedly more unpredictable than him under joe biden washington is looking to explore diplomacy for denuclearization but a grand bargain is out of the question the list may not qualify as grand but that call is for the white house to take what we can tell you is that lifting of sanctions and denuclearization will not happen overnight the north and the south will first have to achieve a thor the two couriers have already restored hotlines reports suggest a joint lies on office and a summit could be next and it is only after this that formal talks with washington could resume but now north korea is sending mixed signals on the one hand kim jong-un is offering talks in exchange of luxury goods on the other hand his sister is threatening south korea well headlines like these won't help kim jong-un's seller your report be on world is one meanwhile china is struggling with the homecoming of its homemade virus that's right the wuhan virus has once again resurfaced in its country of origin and this time it's in the form of the delta variant which is said to be spreading rapidly how rapidly this the chinese regime won't tell us what we do know though is that the 11 million residents of wuhan are going to be tested all over again 11 million of them the capital beijing has been partially sealed from the rest of the country at least 27 cities in 18 provinces are reporting new cases it's an embarrassing moment for china which was mocking the world with pool parties and celebrations around the same time last year [Music] wuhan went wild at a pool party thousands of revelers packed a water park dancing to the rhythm of normalcy [Music] the chinese media sold these images as communist parties victory over the virus one year on the victory celebration may prove to be premature and the chinese media won't discuss it look at these images from wuhan they were taken on tuesday morning here's a child getting a nucleic acid test for the wuhan virus as other residents wait for their turn the masks have returned as have face shields along with frontline workers back in their ppe kits people have flooded supermarkets they are hoarding up once again fearing another draconian lockdown by the authorities because this is not just any flare-up this is being called china's broadest cover 19 outbreak since the virus first emerged the epicenter once again is the city of wuhan its year-long streak of no cases has been broken local transmissions are on the rise the numbers are in the hundreds so far bad concerns are growing over the pace at which the virus is spreading chinese authorities won't tell you the full picture their actions show how serious the situation is we have decided to quickly conduct nucleic acid testing for all residents in our city to comprehensively screen out positive cases and asymptomatic infections yes wuhan is once again going to test all of its 11 million residents reports say the rest of the country may soon follow suit because the delta variant is breaking through china's virus defenses first this outbreak is caused by the imported delta variant this delta variant has a high vital load is highly contagious spreads with a high speed and has a long recovery time at least 27 cities in 18 provinces are reporting cases the worst hit are beijing in nanjing authorities have tasted 9.2 million and put thousands under lockdown in zhang jiaji authorities are trying to track 5 000 people who attended super spreader events the virus has breached highly protected beijing too the city has been partially sealed no one from regions reporting new infections is being allowed to enter the capital the homemade virus has come back home but in a different form the question is will the homemade vaccines work state-owned sino-farms says its shot is just 68 effective against delta and cynovac the other major supplier says its vaccine has neutralized the delta strain but in laboratory studies only china finds itself in a rather embarrassing state all its claims about conquering the virus have fallen flat euro report we on world is one china's troubles don't end with the virus homecoming there's a bigger problem to the south hostile visitors in the south china sea the latest one is a perceived partner of beijing a country that was once on the fence until now that is we're talking about germany germany has sent a ship to the south china sea why is it significant reason number one this deployment revives german interest in the south china sea their last voyage through here was in 2002 nearly two decades back reason number two germany was considered non-committal on china they wanted competition not conflict mostly because china is germany's largest trading partner so berlin is putting a lot at stake with this voyage reason number three germany is linking up with regional allies the frigate is not making a voyage for the sake of it it will make stops in japan south korea australia and vietnam basically meet up with the alliance of democracies does this mean that germany is officially on board not quite the voyage will stick to traditional shipping routes it won't reach china's red line so no venturing into the taiwan strait or sailing near disputed islands plus the germans want a port visit in shanghai they filed a request with china and got a stiff reply explain your intentions in south china sea then we'll see about the port visit now this is the problem with germany they're unwilling to go all in even this mission is a small miracle no one expected angela merkel to approve it she's always favored talks and settlements but merkel's leadership is set to end her allies see china as a threat to german sovereignty and interests reports say the port call in shanghai was added to get merkel on board but half-hearted or not this deployment has symbolic value germany is the biggest economy in europe it has the power to influence european policy so berlin's realignment is certainly a message to china has beijing received the message well it has instead of responding though china has opted for denial this is their latest editorial hit job in the global times uk germany seek balance with warship transits in south china sea despite u.s pressure it's clear what china is trying to do here playing down these missions it says germany and britain are not acting independently they're wilting under american pressure it's a good argument but is china convincing itself or the world with this trade alone will not keep europe on the fence not for long the democratic alliance is brainstorming new trade routes new and reliable supply chains so china's leverage is significantly smaller now also this is not a west western maritime crusade the regional powers are very much involved i'm talking about countries like india the indian navy is deploying a task force of its eastern fleet to the south china sea the ships will set off in early august over two months they will visit southeast asia the south china sea and the western pacific this is how india described its objective and i'm quoting deployment of indian navy ships seeks to underscore the operational reach peaceful presence and solidarity with friendly countries towards ensuring good order in the maritime domain and to strengthen existing bonds between india and countries of the indo-pacific china has not reacted to india's plans yet but rest assured they will be livid this indian voyage cannot be dismissed as american pressure new delhi has direct stakes in the region it does not need a nudge from the u.s to save these waters put together it's all bad news for china at the moment the wuhan virus is making a homecoming tour the so-called maritime backyard has become a global common and perceived partners are abandoning ship it's true what they say about democracy it is slow and imperfect but it prevails and that's exactly what the alliance of democracies is doing moving slowly but surely our next story is from afghanistan throughout history the panchi province in afghanistan's northeast has fearlessly banded together and resisted occupying forces this includes the soviets in the 1980s and the taliban in the 1990s decades later a tenacious taliban is once again at its doorstep government forces in the province are overwhelmed so the panchiris have taken it upon themselves to protect their land our correspondent anas malik traveled to the panchi province he sent us this report today some former mujahideen warlords who fought beside pancheeris against the taliban are promising to revive their militias the entrance to the city of panchayat it is manned by the afghan army this area has historically always repulled the taliban [Music] the scenic panchir valley also serves as a tourist spot for the people of afghanistan who would often flock to the lush valley with the mighty panchay river flowing along rugged mountains to spend their weekend the river that flows right behind me is known as the river of panchayat when share the name literally can't say into five lines it is the home to ahmad shah masood who is commonly known as the lion of one share panchayat has always resisted oppressive regimes including that of the taliban the taliban have only dreamt of taking over the entire territory they have never even been able to take a single district panchayat is perhaps one of the most beautiful districts in the entire afghanistan resentful at how many panchiris and other strongmen of the old u.s backed northern alliance were marginalized by president hamid karzai they want their weapons back when in the past taliban had come to afghanistan ninety percent was with them whereas the ten percent was with the government and that ten percent was panchi and kabul back then panchir was just another area now it's a district when back then the people of panchi stood in front of the taliban then why not now around panshir the headquarters of the former northern alliance where ahmad shah massour used to live hundreds of volunteers have taken up arms to protect their homes and knowingly or not the business interests of local warlords and power brokers who are organizing a militia movement these volunteers are trained at the riverbank of the panchayat river our youngsters are training to fight we are doing this so that our country can be defended because our leader ahmad shah massoud did the same for his country all the youngsters are doing this because of their love and commitment to the soil these recent conflict-ridden weeks have seen local militias spurred by afghan leaders arming and regrouping much in the way of how afghanistan fell into civil war in the 1990s sons are being trained by their fathers to fight the taliban the way our elders fought earlier we the youngsters are now being trained in the same manner to safeguard our country since the past one month we are being trained in a military manner so we are 100 ready to defend our country we have taken up these arms the same way our fathers did to fight terrorists and we want to fight terrorists too we are hundred percent ready so that when the taliban come we will give them a befitting response almost every day elders sit in the office of ahmed shah masood to discuss strategy current situation and there would be response so that when the time comes they are not caught off guard share bureau report we on world is one the last 20 months of this pandemic have been emotionally and financially crippling for millions but for tech titans they've brought a dramatic reversal of fortune i'm talking about the likes of apple google and amazon they've become bigger than they already were with profits that go up to several billion dollars and a double-digit growth rate in their net income how did they do it thanks to you our next report explains when the covet 19 pandemic hit us thousands of businesses were thrown into chaos the disruption was massive it appeared like everyone would suffer 20 months into it we have some winners big tech has grown bigger the issues on tuesday apple revealed that it earned 21.7 billion dollars in the last three months 21.7 billion dollars that's almost double the 11.2 billion dollars it earned in the same period last year over the last quarter the company made 40 billion dollars by selling iphones only this is significantly more than the 26.4 billion dollars it made during the same period last year other big tech giants are having an amazing time as well take microsoft for example it reported a net income of 16.5 billion dollars last week that is an almost 50 percent increase from the 11.2 billion dollars it reported same time last year the coffers of google's parent company are swelling up as well alphabet inc has reported an astonishing 166 percent increase in net income compared to last year it has reported a net income of 18.5 billion dollars for the last three months compared to 6.96 billion dollars earned during the same time frame in 2020 and then we have facebook the social networking site has also doubled its quarterly net income earning 10.3 billion dollars in the last three months compared with an earning of 5.2 billion dollars last year its pairs are minting money how could amazon be an exception the e-commerce giant continues its record-breaking growth on the 29th of july amazon reported a 50 increase in its quarterly net income earning 7.8 billion dollars in the last three months compared to 5.2 billion during the same time the fact is the pandemic has made their giants and their bosses unfathomably rich the question is how did they do it the answer is they did not their customers did how exactly by making tech companies their lifelines during lockdowns take home shopping for example it went from an occasional indulgence to a safety necessity during the pandemic people used amazon excessively to get items they could not go to a store for the same for socializing people used facebook and instagram to catch up with their friends and family as schools went virtual families bought laptops and tablets for online learning and with strict lockdowns any business that still had money to spend spend it on ads on google and microsoft platforms all of this might seem too obvious now but it wasn't necessarily a year ago the habits that we adopted were in some sense exactly what the tech giants had hoped to create for us and it shows in their earnings reports bureau report we on world is one that's a wrap we're leaving as always with gravitas images thanks for watching [Music] um

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Keywords: gravitas, gravitas live, palki sharma, wion, wion live, wion news, live, gravitas live wion, gravitas today, palki sharma upadhyay, wion live news, world news, english news, gravitas wion, gravitas live with palki sharma upadhyay, india, Taliban, china, chinese, afghanistan, taliban in afghan, taliban takeover afghan, china nationalism, china news, interview

Id: EdCdUF_LDfw

Length: 44min 20sec (2660 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 03 2021