ali arouzi/ nbc news/ tehran, iran "but the u.s. sailors weren't set free without a warning from iran's army chief. he said let this be a warning to troublemaker s in congress who want to impose more sanctions on iran. ali arouzi, nbc news, tehran." >> secretary of state john n rry is thanking iran for ending what could have speech on foreign policy this morning in washington, kerry said diplomacy is critical in our tional security. john kerry / secretary of state "these are always situations which as everybody here knows have an ability if not properly guided to get out of control. and i'm appreciative for the quick and appropriate response." iranian state television has shown dramatic images of the moment when revolutionary guard forces captured the u.s. sailors in the persian gulf the video and stills were published hours after the ten american sailors were released by iran. some images show the sailors with their hands on their heads, while others show iranians inspecting the machine guns onboard and going through papers. >> wea

ali arouzi, nbc news, tehran. the news of the hostage release is also being addressed on the campaign trail today. governor chris christie is on a three day swing through iowa. today he stopped at the machine shed in urbandale. in a one on one interview, christie told our political director dave price -- that iran's action serve's as a reminder that they can not be trusted... 370002 - we are obviously very happy for the americans who are going to be home but i also wanna hear what the other side of the deal is. if this president is releasing more terrorists from guantanomo to go back and reenter the war on terror then im going to be very concerned about that. we shouldnt have to swap prisoners, these folks were taking illegally in violation of international law, they should be released without condition. the irans have treated this president with disrespect for years and he continues to take it. i would not take it as president. price: with presidents overtures towards iran does that do nothing long term do foster

ali arouzi, nbc news, paris. a french police official says a man found to be carrying two handguns has been arrested at a hotel at carrying two handguns has been arrested at a hotel at disneyland paris. the official said no one was injured during the arrest y, but couldn't provide further details. france remains under a state of islamic extremist attacks around paris killed 130 people in november. today, nasa is holding a day of remembrance 30 years after the space shuttle challenger exploded just 73-seconds after liftoff. all seven astronauts onboard were killed including south carolina native ronald mcnair. as part of nasa's annual day of remembrance -- those men and women will be honored along with other nasa personnel who have lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery. good news on the job front-- the number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week. in spite of the global decline in the stock market, the new numbers show employers are not cutting jobs. weekly appli

ali arouzi, nbc news, tehran. chris: this is not my forecast, but i want to show you this model for tomorrow morning. coming up in the full forecast, i will show you what it would take to get an inch of snow tomorrow morning, because it's possible. >> now your live super doppler 4 hd weather forecast. chris: take a look the sky cam time lapse from hendersonville. gorgeous sunshine all day long. at this day went on, high tall cirrus clouds moved in. that is the sign of some changes from the south. can you believe we topped out at 60 in both greenville and anderson? 59 in spartanburg. area, only rising up to 49 degrees. as we head overnight, temperatures will continue to cool, especially in the mountains. 38 in asheville. 55 in greenville. weight you want for any winter weather -- way too warm for any winter weather, but the threat is there. we are watching for the south for the next system. system. it will go way south and offshore of the carolina coast. it's this upper piece of energy right here that will move dir

nbc's ali arouzi up with us and it's past midnight there. we have the day after the iran deal has been ratified and verified by the iaea and the new sanctions announced by the united states. what have been the headlines? how have iranians been reacting to so many different developments when it comes to iran and the united states? >> reporter: absolutely, richard. we are seeing the culmination of a flurry of diplomatic activity between iran and america, something that would have been unheard of several years ago and people in iran are very happy about the ultimate result of this because they've been waiting for sanctions to be lifted from this country for a very long time now. the sanctions have had a detrimental effect on the iranian economy and the iranian people's psyche. they haven't been able to transfer money from banks to banks and it's been very difficult to get visas to other countries and it's been impossible to make wire transfers and on a business scale from the country, they haven't been able to sell the country's natural resourc

ali arouzi has more on the relationship between the u.s. and iran. >> reporter: at least two of the dual national prisoners released by iran have left the country. this is the culmination of a long diplomatic process between america and iran. a diplomatic process that started with the nuclear deal been. >> translator: in the nuclear deal no party has beaten another party. the iranian nation has won. nobody was beaten in the nuclear deal, neither inside the country nor among the countries that negotiated with us. >> reporter: a few years ago it would have been unthinkable for iran and america to be talking directly to each other, but the direct talks have resulted in a nuclear deal, the release of american iranian prisoners and avoiding of tensions on the high seas were another hostage situation when the u.s. navy sailors accidentally drifted into iranian territorial waters. this has been a long process since the nuclear negotiations started. the two sides have sworn relations that we have to be cautious of the fact that iran and america hav

for more on this right now let's bring in nbc news correspondent ali arouzi live in tehran. ali, what's the latest? >> good morning, mika. that's right the iranian revolutionary guard issued a statement saying that they've released the ten sailors and their two vessels. they said initially they had stopped them because they found they had been suspicious. but after conducting a thorough investigation they concluded that their navigation system had failed and they accidentally trayed into iranian waters. they weren't suspected of any espionage or anything untoward. they said that the boats had been escorted out of iranian territorial waters, into international waters. now we had been expecting them to be released early tehran time. that didn't happen because i think anything to do with the united states here is very sensitive, and has to go through multiple layers of bureaucracy here, and get signed off at the very top of the iranian power system here. but thankfully they've been let go. no harm done to them. and what's more important, that this didn't turn into a huge interna

nbc's ali arouzi reports from tehran, on the state of diplomatic relations between the u.s. and iran. ali: at least three of the dual-national prisoners released by iran have now left the country. this is the culmination of a long diplomatic process between america and iran, a diplomatic process that started with the nuclear deal. >> in the nuclear deal, no party iranian nation has won. nobody was beaten in the nuclear deal, neither inside the country, nor among the countries that negotiated with us. ali: a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable for iran and america to be talking directly to each other. but the direct talks have resulted in a nuclear deal, the release of american-iranian prisoners, and avoiding of tensions on the high seas, and another hostage situation, when the u.s. navy sailors accidentally drifted into iranian territorial waters. now, this has been a long process since the nuclear negotiations started. the two sides have warmed relations, but we also havavto be cautious of the fact that iran and america have very different strategic interests in th

ali arouzi is live from tehran with the latest. good morning aly. >> reporter: good morning, shannon. that's right. the culmination of an important diplomatic process between the united states and iran that opened up a direct channel of communication with each other about two years ago over the nuclear deal. communications that had been severed since 1979 and if they hadn't started talking directly to each other i don't think we would have seen the implementation of the nuclear deal and certainly the situation with the u.s. iranian prisoners could have been a lot worse. things have seemed to resolved themselves and a softening of the relationship between the united states and iran that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago but we have to be careful not to get ahead of themselves. america is still considered the great satan, iran's ideological enemy and the hard liners cling on to that and we see evidence of the animosity between these two, yesterday president obama imposed new sanctions on iran over its missile program a

. >> let's bring in nbc news correspondent and tehran bureau chief ali arouzi, following the story inran. what's the reaction to the new sanctions? >> reporter: well, it hasn't been very good. authorities here said that the sanctions are illegal and illogical and they quoted it as saying because the united states sells so many arms to iran's adversaries in the region, why shouldn't iran have a ballistic missile program. members of parliament are very critical. this comes amidst a flurry of diplomatic activity, the nuclear deal being implemented, iranian american prisoners being released but at the same time, sanctions being imposed on iran and it shows how complicated the relationship between these two countries are. it's true they've opened up a direct channel of dialogue with each other two yeerkz which didn't exist since 1979 and there has been a softening of relations between the two countries talking to each other, avoiding a diplomatic crisis, but at the end of the day the united states is still the great satan here and iran's ideological enme. there's a long way to go before th

jim miklaszewski joins us from the pentagon and ali arouzi live from the iranian capital. mik, i will start with you. do we have any sense what was taken from the boats? >> according to officials, nothing highly sophisticated about gear on board. iranians talked about seizing gps. you have that in your car and cell phone. so not clear why they were excited or claiming that this was a huge prize, but again, no highly sophisticated top secret surveillance or acquisition kind of radars or anything on board as far as u.s. officials know. harkening back to the video, if you look at it closely, it was professionally done. here is why. when you see the sailors kneeling on the deck with hands locked behind their head, you don't do that normally unless you have guns trained on you. nowhere do we see still photos, nowhere do you see video of iranians with guns trained on americans. that may, and i am not sure this is part of consideration, maybe it was by accident, that clearly would have incited back lash to have weapons aimed at u.s. sailors, on their knees, hands behind their bac

n-b-c's ali arouzi reports from paris. president hassan rouhani is in paris today (thursday) for the second leg of his european tour and a clear sign that relations are warming with iran. iran is coming in from the cold. he's here to sign lucrative trade deals, and he's here with a huge delegation of ministers and businessmen. he was supposed to have lunch today with the iranian delegation requested that wine not be served at lunch, which postpone the meetings for after lunch. but what is on the menu are big trade deals. buying 400 more planes over the next decade. they're also going to be talking to major car manufacturers, peugeot and renault, who want to get back into the lucrative iranian car market after having been squeezed out during the era of sanctions. so a lot of business to be done here for the iranian delegation, and a groundbreaking trip. but iran still remains unpredictable even though there's warmer relations between france and iran. they're at odds politically on many president bashar al-assad. and in iran

ali arouzi, iran. >>> mexican drug lord el chapo had never heard of sean penn before his escape.according to a mexican newspaper joaquin guzman asked to meet with actress kate del castillo and that she wanted penn to come. guzman has been moved between cells eight times since friday and he is heavily guarded and in solitary confinement and mexican officials say it could take five years before guzman is extradited to the u.s. >>> now your storm team 4 forecast. >>> as we head into the evening hours the wind will diminish and another cold start tomorrow morning and overall, noticeably warmer by a good 15 degrees and you'll still want the warmer coat there, but very nice for mid-january. the next chance of rain comes late friday into early saturday and looking ahead to martin luther king jr. day and wait until you can factor in the winds and the weather having a low impact on your day and a chilly start overall and a little bit more cloud cover. as we look to high temperatures tomorrow we'll see them warm into the 40s. currently, temperatures coming in into the 20s and 30s and as we

nbnbs ali arouzi has more from tehran. ali: iran's powerful revolutionary guard issued a statement earlier today, saying that all ten american sailors had been freed with their vessels. initially, the revolutionary guard said that the sailors and their vessels had been apprehended in iranian waters and acting suspiciously. but later, a revolutionary guard admiral said that after an extensive investigation, they realized that the american vessels' navigation equipment had failed and they had accidentally strayed into iranian waters. they said that their activities were not suspicious nor were they here to conduct any sort of espionage. this c cld've been a major international incident between the united states and iran, but it was contained in a diplomatic fashion, which is in line with president rouhani's approach to international relations. this came at a sensitive time because we're only days away from implementation of the nuclear deal. the possibility of a crisis could have jeopardized that and the billions of dollars e

for an update, let's go to nbc's ali arouzi in tehran. ali, do we have real optimism that we'll get our people back? >> reporter: well, chris, this is a very good question. this has happened before in 2007. the revolutionary guard had arrested some british sailors, but they had been held here for two weeks. we're getting snippets of information here from the fares news agency arresting they have arrested ten u.s. sailors, nine men and one woman. the revolutionary guard said that they intentionally strayed into iranian waters, it said that the ship had a .50-caliber gun on it, they had gps systems, they were snooping around and they knew what they were doing. but as you mentioned, this comes as a very sensitive time, as iran wants to implement the nuclear deal and i'm sure president rowhani wants to sort this out as soon as possible. but let's not forget, he's not the commander in chief. the revolutionary guard take their orders from the supreme leader. so i'm hsure rowhani is making huge diplomatic effort to get them free, but the ball isn

. >> joe, as you heard from ali arouzi, a lot of things are happening in iran. i was mentioning the ayatollah, mentioning election, youth vote. put that together in terms of what is making rouhani the right person, perhaps, at the right time to get this done coming from iran. >> he wants to take the nuclear deal plus the steps you've seen him taking and open up iran to the west. he believes that iran's real power comes from economic power and that you can only get by engaging with the west and you can only get that by stopping the sanctions and you can only do that by giving up the nuclear weapons capability. so he -- and he appears to have convinced the supreme leader -- has made a strategic choice. give up the nuclear weapons capability in exchange for this economic opening and this will be where you get real security and real power not through the illusion their power of nuclear weapons. that's what he's thinking. he appears to have the upper hand for now. >> kahn ross, to you on this. as we've looked at the last 48 hours, secretary kerry in kerry fashion com

nbc' s ali arouzi reports. arrested a man carrying two guns paris. on the watchlist. carrying some ammunition and the koran. his bag set off the metal detector at the hotel new york outside the paris resort. a female companion is also reported to have been arrested, but she is not believed to have been armed. this is sure very nervous here. they are not treating it as a terrorist-related incident, but it is still in the early seduce -- stages of the investigation. paris is on a high state of alert after the attacks in november. you regularly see patrols in the streets. that will make them especially nervous after the attacks. stewart: coming up, a teen burglar, paralyzed when a homeowner shot him in his house, asks a judge to let him out of prison. meredith: wesh 2 was in court, as the judge gave him an offer he couldn' t refuse. >> if you have any hope natural life, now' s the time to talk. meredith: plus, storm clean up continues in south florida, after a tornado touches down. stewart: and as we head to break, a look at the challenger tragedy. today marks 30 years since the entire crew of t

ali arouzi, nbc news, tehran. >>> a police dashboard camera captures a 100 miles an hour chase. oklahoma county sheriffs chased a truck driver who refused to pull over. at one point the driver started going the wrong way on the highway and that's when officers bumped the truck and pushed him to the side of the road. when they went to apprehend the subject, he started to fight back and reach for a gun. the two officers overpowered the suspect and took him to jail. >>> and helmet cam video shows emergency crews free ago california worker trapping in a trench, the oakland plumbing contractor spend more than 10 hours trapped in a ten-foot sewer line. the trench suddenly collapsed on him as he was working. emts rushed the man to the hospital but he's expected to be okay. >>> in massachusetts, rescue crews saved a horse after it fell on ice and mud. police, firefighters and animal control showed up to help the horse named charlie. after more than two hours on his side, charlie was able to get back up on his own. a vet says charlie should be okay. it is bitterly cold across our area th

nbc's ali arouzi is in tehran with the latest. ali? >> reporter: richard action an important day for diplomatic relations in iran. the nuclear deal has been implemented. people have been waiting for this to are a long time. we knew it would be on this date and now it's happened. economic sanctions on the country have been lifted. president rouhani made a speech today to the nation saying that the country has been freed of economic sanctions, the chains have been broken, and it's a new golden era for the country. so iran can now look forward to economic prosperity. what we didn't anticipate was the release of these four dual nationals. that came as a big surprise to everybody here. it was not something that we were expecting here in the country, but it came as very good news for many here. now the details have been sketchy. iran news agencies this morning were reporting jason rezaian "the washington post" correspondent hadn't been released but the state department confirmed he's on his way home now. we don't know on what carriers they a

ali arouzi is our tehran bureau chief. how important is this trip for iran? for iran. this is a very big deal for president rouhani to be coming here. this is the first time an iranian president has made a european trip like this in almost two decades and a clear signal that iran is coming in from the cold and ready to do business with the world. now, president rouhani is meant to meet president holaund tomorrow, they were supposed to have lunch, but they asked wine not be served so the meeting is postponed for after lunch. what is on the menu is huge, lucrative trade deals worth billions. iran is expected to sign a contract to buy hundreds of airbus planes with 400 more over the next decade. they're having meetings with major car companies who want to get back into the iranian car market. persia used to have the largest stake in the iranian car market, but they lost that during sanctions. they want to shore up all of these kind of deals. but jose, iran still remains unpredictable. even though there's a warming of relations between countries like france and i

continue with the four-way conversation here, richard, and please stay with us, and we will go the ali arouzithis release, because why is this a nod to the warming of relations of the u.s. and iran, and would this have happened if it weren't implementation day today? >> well, alex, this is indicating a certainly different relati relationship between ud and iran, and the two sides have not been speaking since 1979, but since 2012, '13, american and iran started the back channel conversations over the nuclear deal. it is unheard of before. these are all key events happening right after each other. the nuclear deal being implement ed in vienna, and the iranians being released from here, and sorting out the situation of the u.s. sailors who drifted into the iranian territorial waters, and this is a whole new relationship of iran and america, but as i spoke to you earlier, we should not overstate the relationship either, because america is still the ideological enemy, and this is the land where they refer to america as the great satan, but it is an indication of how much rouhani's administration w

for an update, let's go to nbc's ali arouzi in tehran. ism that we'll get our people back?

. >> nbc's ali arouzi thank you so much in tehran. 5:51 p.m. local time there. >>> to discuss how the tensions between iran and saudi arabia could impact american diplomatic efforts in the region we bring in steve clemmens of "the atlantic" magazine. one of the questions is the sheikh and who he is and how important he was at least to peace or lack thereof between these two countries. what do you know? >> i think in the eastern provinces of saudi arabia, where you had both an area of air in bahrain that began to rise up and demand for more justice from the saudi regime and bahrain from their sunni dominated regime, bahrain is a shiite majority country and in that arab spring moment when we saw protests throughout the region sheikh al minr called for a robust movement and was arrested shortly after that as part of the protests that were going on. most look at him as being the voice of that opposition that was calling for greater sectarian justice in saudi arabia, and so it's a confusing picture, those on the side of the saudi regime look at him

. >> nbc's ali arouzi, thank you for joining us this morning. >>> let's bring in foreign correspondent eamon mohyeldin. this morning israel expressed criticism on the deal. could it derail it? >> unlikely diplomatically. the deal has already been concluded, it's well under way. iran is in compliance according to the international atomic energy agency. the sanctions have been lifted. in terms of diplomatic momentum there's nothing israel can do diplomatically now. it already tried to make its case. the prime minister came to the u.s. and tried to lobby congress and tried to lobby international capitals in the u.n. all of that failed, even costing to a big deal a strain in u.s./israeli relationship. what israel can do and what the prime minister said today is that they will prevent iran from having a nuclear weapon if the iranians do at some point violate that agreement. how? probably as we've seen in the past, israel trying to use any covert capabilities to sabotage iran's nuclear program, if in fact iran tries to resume it. at this stage there's little israel can do but follow the rest

. >> ali arouzi live in tehran, iran, with that update. >>> donald trump accusing hillary clinton ofying the so-called woman card. what could be the strategy behind his words. >>> plus, what's being done to clear up a dangerous situation in china. rush liquid fast relief to your tough cold symptoms. fast, powerful liquid gels from alka seltzer plus ...of fixodent plus adhesives. they help your denture hold strong more like natural teeth. and you can eat even tough food. fixodent. strong more like natural teeth. fixodent and forget it. wopen up a lot of dawn. tough on grease...yet gentle. dawn helps open... something even bigger. go to facebook.com, dawn saves wildlife. ♪ the lexus december to remember sales event is here. lease the 2015 gs350 with complimentary navigation system for these terms. see your lexus dealer. announcer: ifis the staying awake part...y [train horn blares] sleep train has your ticket to a better night's sleep. with a 100 night low price guarantee, sleep train's love your mattress money back guarantee, same day delivery, plus helpful advice from the sleep exper

for the very latest, let's go right to tehran, nbc's ali arouzi is there. thank you.ell us what you know. >> reporter: that's right, melissa. hard-line protesters raided the saudi embassy in tehran last night angry over the execution of the prominent shia cleric, sheikh nimr al nimr. protesters shouted "death to saudi arabia," threw molotov cocktails at the building before pouring inside and ransacking the premises. flames and smoke could be seen billowing from the windows. protesters last night also ransacked the saudi consulate in a city northeast in iran. iran's ruling establishment today were very quick to condemn the execution. the supreme leader, ayatollah khomeini said in a tweet saudi arabia will face divine revenge for al nimr's execution calling the execution a huge crime and wrong deed. the country's huge revolutionary guard also vowed revenge. they said nimr's execution violates human rights and values but the damage of the saudi embassy was by no means justifiable. rowhani said iran's interior minister has been asked to identify the attackers and bring th

joining me now to talk about this, nbc news's tehran bureau chief, ali arouzi, start with you.nd the reports about saudis cutting commercial ties and also not allowing citizens from traveling to iran. talk about that and the ramifications from it. >> reporter: well, frances, this has quite broad ramifications. firstly, for iranians, we're not sure yet if iranian pilgrims are going to be banned from traveling to saudi arabia but that's a very, very important pilgrimage for muslims of all denominations, sunni or shia. it is the duty of all muslims to make a pilgrimage to mecca, medina and some 600,000 iranians travel to saudi arabia every year to make that pilgrimage. if they're banned from doing that, they're going to be very, very upset about that because it is very important for them so we have to see if that's going to happen. in the past, iran has banned iranian pilgrims from going to saudi arabia over disputes with saudi arabia, but it was only for a very short period of time. if this is an extended ban, it could be very upsetting for iranians here. the other worrying thing

>> ali arouzi, thank you for that. >>> i want to bring in ken po pollack.te. >> talk for those of us not intimately familiar with the region and the complexities and the sectarian differences, what does all of this mean for the united states in terms of our fight against isis, in terms of our fight in syria? >> yeah. the bottom line answer to that, kate, we don't know. and it's really getting to the point that you just made. it is the context. the middle east is never been good. never been good in anyone's modern memory and gotten incredibly bad over the last five years and what we see in the region now is multiple conflicts. we have got four major civil wars going. we have four other smaller civil wars. we have tensions, terrorism, refugees, radicalization all over and all of these different problems are intersecting in ways that people just can't really predict. all right? so we don't know what they do next. five years ago, this wouldn't have happened at all. saudis might not have executed nimr al nimr. the idea that the saudis break ties. it wouldn't hav

ali arouzi joins us now. how the interest of other countries as kuwait is joining against iran. >> reporter: well, thomas, we have had a mixed bag of reactions and statements here today. iran is still very angry about this. president rowhani slightly harsher words said that the saudi government tries to conceal the criminal act of beheading a religious leader. he also called on european union countries to fulfill their human rights responsibilities. oddly enough today we had a statement from the very hardline revolutionary guard here, a senior general from the revolutionary guard said that the attack on and fire attack was really wrong, a mistake and under circumstances was it justifiable. but he also retorted to comments of the saudi foreign minister about standing up against iran. he said any threat from the saudis is insfapt to iran. interestingly enough today state tv also showed footage of a second underground missile depot. the first time they showed this about three months ago when the nuclear deal was

. >> ali arouzi, thank you. >>> some new revelations surrounding the prisoner swap.ests u.s. diplomats thought the american prisoners would be released months ago and even shook on it with iranian counterparts in november. but proposed agreement was rejected in tehran until now. i want to bring in jessica schullburg for the huffington post. jessica is one of a handful of reporters who for months knew about these secret negotiations. something we talked about yesterday. there's a new angle to discuss today. what exactly happened? why did we think that we had secured the release and then discovered that wasn't the case? >> exactly what happened is still a little unclear. what we do know is that secretary of state john kerry thought that after the nuclear deal was finalized, things were looking better for the prisoners. he said in the last conversation he had with iran's foreign minister javod zarif, it's really important you get these prisoners out. if you want to show to the world that iran is willing to have a neurtype of relationship, it's going to be hard to do tha

joining me now from tehran is nbc's ali arouzi. >> reporter: the iranians are excited about sanctions. the deal happened in august. and now it's been implemented today. i think it's going to spell a lot of relief for ordinary people here. the last eight years in iran, when the sanctions have been particularly difficult, have been very hard for iranian people. they've been squeezed out of the international banking market. their currency is de valvaluede. their they're hoping to change all of that. joining the international community has been very important for iranians. iranians felt like they were pushed out into the cold, that they were a global pariah, and they didn't like that. they said this was a misrepresentation of who we are, and they want that desperately to change. we were out in the streets today, we were in the bazaar, we were talking to people, and they were very happy. they said, we hope this is a new chapter for iran, we hope this is a new chapter for iranian-american relations. we want to be careful not to overstate that. we've seen new sanctions imposed on iran. presi

jim miklaszewski joins us from the pentagon and ali arouzi live from the iranian capital.e any sense what was taken from

ali arouzi, nbc news, tehran. chris: an arctic front with brutally cold temperatures moving in.

nbc's ali arouzi reports from tehran, on the state of diplomatic relations between the u.s. and iran. ali: at least three of the dual-national prisoners released by iran have now left the country. this is the culmination of a long diplomatic process between america and iran, a diplomatic process that started with the