Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi: The 2022 60 Minutes Interview

the United States first placed Financial sanctions on Iran back in 1979 during the hostage crisis for nearly four decades the US state department has designated Iran one of the world's leading State sponsors of terrorism but the Obama Administration along with five other countries agreed to billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for Iran's agreement to dismantle much of its nuclear program and open its facilities to extensive International inspection the Trump Administration distrusting Teran pulled out of the deal and stepped up crushing economic pressure that's where ibraim RI found himself when he was elected president a year ago last month Iran and the 61-year-old hardliner were on the verge of striking a new deal but then Iran submitted demands that sent the nuclear talks into a stalemate sir thank you I'm Leslie we met president rizi Tuesday at the presidential compound in tran for his first interview with a western reporter I was told how to dress not to sit before he did and not to interrupt him we were given one hour for the interview can we start with the negotiations on the nuclear deal do you want to have that deal renewed because you know there are some American officials who are beginning to think that you don't if it's a good deal and fair deal we would be serious about reaching an agreement it needs to be lasting there needs to be guarantees if there were a guarantee then the Americans could not withdraw from the deal but you can pull out of the deal I mean just as well as we could pull out of the deal you see the Americans broke their promises they did it unilaterally they said that I am out of the deal now making promises is becoming meaningless are you saying that you cannot trust the Americans we cannot trust the Americans because of the behavior that we've already seen from them that is why if there is no guarantee there is no trust the US says the West can't trust Iran for instance when it claims its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes as far as we can tell you don't use it for you know things that can help your citizens like electricity you say that you want it for peaceful reasons like what like in medicine agriculture oil gas in terms of peaceful purposes one available figure from the UN nuclear Watchdog agency the IAA is that only 1.8% of the country's electricity is generated by nuclear power there seems to be some evidence that you had been working at least before toward a bomb a bomb a weapon and that you might be doing that again responded to these claims several times they are baseless the Islamic Republic of Iran has said many times that possessing nuclear weapons has no place in our Doctrine however the US intelligence Community has assessed with high confidence that Iran did attempt to develop a nuclear bomb in the past and then there are the American citizens being detained in Teran three of whom were born in Iran if there is a deal would you agree to release the four Americans who are being held here could that be part of it there are Iranian Nationals also imprisoned inside the US these people are only in there because they simply Tred to circumvent sanctions and the Americans we have told them that we can talk to them about this it can be conducted separately from the nuclear talks it can be done between the two countries it is a humanitarian issue this can be negotiated you're off to New York you're going to speak at the United Nations you know President Biden is going to be there are you open to a meeting with President Biden a face to face no I don't think that such a meeting would happen I don't believe having a meeting or talk with him will be beneficial what do you think the difference is from your perspective between the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration the new Administration in the US they claim that they are different from the Trump Administration they have said it in their messages to us but we haven't witnessed any changes in reality his major grievance against President Biden is that he has maintained the sanctions on Iran that President Trump imposed the sanctions are very tyrannical this is a tyranny against the people of Iran it is important to us to have the sanctions lifted the sanctions thrust Iran into a 2-year recession mainly because oil exports from refineries like this one fell overnight from 2.8 million barrels a day to about 200,000 businesses have been cut cut off from International banking with inflation today in Iran at over 40% virtually everything is more expensive and yet we found traffic here as clogged as in New York and as we saw teran's bazaars are teaming with Shoppers hello the ones we met were friendly to us how are are you oh I'm good how are you f thanks are you good do you do you study English in school no one reason for the bustling Commerce is something the president calls the resistance economy in which businesses are encouraged to make more of the things themselves that they used to import so do you know where these are made made in Iran in Iran yeah homemade blue jeans for our country also made in Iran washing machines refrigerators TV they also have their own version of Uber Eats called Snap food Iran is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations dating back to 4,000 BC it's where the foundations of algebra and chemistry were developed today while there's ATT tension to religious tradition in the Islamic Republic it's one of the most westernized countries in the Middle East with with a well-educated population this mall could be anywhere in America with an ice skating rink a food court with hot dogs and burgers and the least expected sexy window displays and yet president risi just signed a decree making women who don't dress modestly subject to arrest a young woman died Friday after the morality police took her into custody for violating the rules on head coverings eyewitnesses say they saw her being beaten while in a police van President ri's Office says he ordered an investigation sad ibraim rayi descends from the prophet Muhammad as his black turban signifies according to Shiite Muslim tradition he's a Hardline conservative cleric like his mentor the supreme leader Ayatollah hamani I want to ask you about your own record there is a personal sanction against you you took part in a commission that was responsible for executing up to 5,000 political dissidents they were um hanged or shot by firing squad uh I want to ask if you regret that action what kind of proof can you offer for this these are just allegations and claims made by members of a terrorist group you're saying that that was a not true and that the anybody who commits a crime in Iran stands trial in official courts of Law and they received punishments for what they did they were assassinating people and what happened to them was exactly proportionate to what they did but the US Treasury Department sanctioned RI personally for human rights violations over this and Amnesty International called it a crime against humanity the president was feisty with us sprinkling his answers with a predictable antipathy toward Israel and Jewish people the supreme leader Ayatollah hamani was scathing when he tweeted on the same subject in English in 2018 Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor that has to be removed and eradicated do you believe the Holocaust happened that 6 million Jews were slaughtered look historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians there are some signs that it happened if so they should allow it to be investigated and researched so you're not sure I'm getting that you're not sure what about Israel's right to exist you see the people of Palestine are the reality this is the right of the people of Palestine who are forced to leave their houses in motherland the Americans are supporting this false regime there to take root and be established there you know that U Morocco Bahrain Sudan and the United Arab Emirates um have all recognized Israel uh and have relations with Israel and it is said that Saudi Arabia is also talking directly with Israel um and I wonder if you'd want to comment on that what did you if a state shakes hands with the Zionist regime then they are also an accomplice to their crimes and they are stabbing the very idea of Palestine in the back you have vowed revenge on the US government for the killing of General sulamani more than two years ago the US killed General kasum solmani in a drone strike a revered military hero in Iran he masterminded deadly attacks on American forces throughout the region for years the supreme leader has called for retaliation are you intending to retaliate by assassinating officials from the Trump Administration what the then American government did by the direct order of trump himself to assassinate Mr kasum Solani this was a heinous crime we want Justice to be served we are not going to forget about this I'm wondering what you mean by Justice does it mean an eye for an eye there was this assassination now we're going to have an you know an answer ass that's the type of the action that the Americans and Zionist regimes are doing in the world we are not going to carry out the same actions and yet the US dep department of justice has charged a member of Iran's revolutionary guard with just that plotting to assassinate John Bolton president Trump's former National Security adviser as he prepares for his trip to the UN president RI is defiant his message no concessions in the nuclear deal Iran will not back down and it can survive the sanctions which he says could well backfire against the United States yes they can create restrictions and problems for us and difficulties but there's a number of countries that are being sanctioned by doing this they are bringing them closer together making them more united and this will render American sanctions ineffective right Chinese Russians Iranians getting closer this approach won't work as we ended what seemed to be a cordial conversation we were surprised when a member of ri's Staff reached up and blocked one of our cameramen from shooting our goodbyes my cam another one of our cameraman's phones was confiscated and held by President Ra's security team for two and a half hours

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 617,874

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Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Sun May 19 2024