for iran. brian has served as the director of policy planning here since february of 2017, and he's worked tirelessly to enact president trump's foreign policy priorities across multiple domains. brian's diplomatic expertise and broad experience with iran policy makes him an outstanding choice to lead the state department iran action group. since the president's decision to withdraw from the iran deal, brian has played an important role in shaping our strategy of maximum diplomatic and economic pressure. we are going to continue to rely on him and his team to lead our efforts to counter the iran regime's activity, to support iranian voices and to galvanize international support for our efforts. with that, i would like to introduce our new special representative for iran. >> do you agree, were you aware of the decision to withdraw [ inaudible ]? >> i'm going to pass on that. >> would you agree with the president? >> i would like to thank the secretary. in may, the secretary announced our new ira

change iran's foreign policy as opposed to always just containing iran and being against iran. in the declarations made by the supreme leader and other senior figures. there was this idea that if the nuclear deal work correctly applied and everyone respected their commitments and promises then it would bring concrete results i mean. it would be possible to enter into other negotiations on other issues on the basis of this excess power for jewish bits seem. from here on iran hope to normalize its relations with the west but the country was then confronted with a syria and iran crises which would give it the opportunity to use other methods than diplomacy to once again become a major player in the middle east. behest as a cemetery in tehran is the biggest in the country. the man known as post was named. day he was an officer in the revolutionary guard who was killed in september two thousand and sixteen in syria. the revolutionary guard corps created in one nine hundred seventy nine is the most powerful security organization in the country it's the tehran regime's praetorian guar

iran. on sunday, u.s. ambassador to britain woody johnson wrote an op-ed in the telegraph urging britain to withdraw its support of the landmark 2015 iran nuclear deal. ambassador johnson wrote -- "america is turning up the pressure a and we want the u.k.y our side." johnson's op-ed comes after the trump administration re-imposed economic sanctions against iran last week following trump's decision to o withdraw from the iran nuclear deal. the sanctions increase tensions between the u.s. and iran, and the u.s. and its european allies. trump threatened other countries seeking to trade with iran, tweeting -- "anyone doing business with iran will not be doing business with the united states." iranian president hassan rouhani has condemned the sanctions as psychological warfare, saying last weeeek he would not begin negotiations until the sanctions are withdrawn. the first step would be for u.s. president donald trump to show he generally was to engage in negotiations to solve the problem. what

iran will not be able to change its foreign policy because iran's policy in syria and iran is what preventeding into iran. not only did iran stop the extremists that western governments helped create with the saudis, look at the intelligence agency document of 2012. the most important military intelligence organisation in the world, the pentagon, stated from early on in syria the dominant militant forces were the extremists and they would create a salafist entity between syria and iraq. and the regional regimes that were allied to the united states were supporting this. and then general flynn later on in an interview admitted... he was the head of that organisation, he admitted the united states took a wilful decision to help its regional allies do this. what was the group that later made a regime between syria and iraq? it was isis. the united states helped the extremists. how can you stand back and allow syria or damascus have the black flags raise over them ? you may make that point, i'm more interested in what this means for iran. there's no question, it's quite obvious that iran's strat

sanctions on iran are in force there the first round of measures against iran after president donald trump rene exam the two thousand and fifteen nuclear deal iran's president is accusing washington waging psychological warfare of sanctions are likely to weaken iran's currency which has been in freefall since trump's decision but also blocked iran from getting access to american dollars the u.s. has stopped imports from iran including food and carpets the sanctions also limit iran's ability to buy raw materials like steel and coal as well as precious metals in november more sanctions will kick in they'll include measures for civically targeting the oil sector and foreign banks that do business with iran kimberly healthcare reports from washington d.c. . the united states says iran is a threat and it wants to punish the country's government by isolating it from the global financial system starting tuesday you. u.s. sanctions will be reimposed to target a range of sectors blocking iran from purchasing u.s. banknotes and trading in gold in metals like aluminum and steel it will also lim

iran should. negotiate only if they are ready to actually return to a behavior that falls in line with united states but also with. the intentions. in the region as well as israel for what it's worth noting that iran of course didn't pull out of the iran nuclear deal the u.s. pulled out of the iran nuclear deal do you believe that part of rouhani would have any incentive to meet with donald trump right now and even if he did. would he have the political capital to do so. one doesn't have any problems with negotiations iran has been negotiating about its nuclear program for the last sixteen seventeen years. in the senate i came and took two years of intensive negotiations between iran and the five plus one so you don't is useful negotiation the only problem iran has is that the us hearing different policy ideas from washington as you pointed out president from. talks about negotiating without any conditions without preconditions repeat this time in a press conference and then about an hour later hi

therefore moscow is trying to forge an equilibrium between iran and israel so that iran can get much of what it wants, namely asad will rule syria and they think the united states had or did before helsinki and that iran will allow itself to be evicted from the area around israel. ten days ago moscow proposed in jerusalem that iranian forces be kept due to miles and they abide by the 1974 agreement and that they would guarantee it. the israelis turned them down flat. just some consternation or surprise in moscow because israel's policy is that the iranian military in syria has to be completely withdrawn or the problem from moscow's point of view is that why they understand security interest, taking the iranians out of syria means that a suds government is not secure at any point in time or anywhere in syria and moscow is not about to commit ground forces to syria in order to sustain asad against his people. the ideal outcome would be a solution that holds the balance between israel and iran and gets the united states out of syria and return for other concession concessions, the creat

iran does too. if you remember a couple of years ago they took down aramco which causes the saudi pain -- saudis pain and reverberates globally. i do not think that alone will bring about the iran-israel conflict that people are afraid of. i think it is more likely to be something other than cyber that precipitates that. >> the iranians are not prepared for a cyber attack when it happened. after that, they started having in did defensive cyber warfare capabilities and that offensive. they have their own cyber commands within the larger part that are the major iranian act involved for preparation for cyber commands. it is extremely important. >> next question? way in the back. >> my question is that you said iranians took aleppo. the russians had a major contributions in the attack on aleppo. could you explain who is who. and who were the russians bombing in syria. >> i didn't quite understand the rest of the question. if you could repeat the main thrust. >> it was said that the iranians took aleppo

should iran when we see iran moving a bit more eastwards or will they also be a bit more pragmatic and say well at the end of it that president trump is in power for two years maybe six at the most just ride the wave after all they used to that i think it's a going to be a mixture of these two tendencies so of course we know that the preference of the iranians ministration has been since the very beginning since two thousand and thirteen to improve relations with the european partners and he has stressed that from a political perspective and economic perspective so i don't see the european preference dropping anytime soon of course because of the limitation of the european tools available to protect what the scope was mentioning are referring to is so small and medium enterprises it's going to be difficult for it iran just to rely on europe us so they are going to look at russia and china we have already seen a number of statements and discussion about no agreements on the energy sector infrastructure scepter between iran and russia and china and that has been also the tendency that we

the government of iran is not putting iran first. when you are putting the assad regime over the well-being of your own people, you are not putting iran first. when you are having this mediocre, watered down deal about the fate of the caspian sea, you're not putting iran's interest first. the islamic book of iran is a poor steward of the -- republic of iran is a poor steward of it iranian national interest. never is more in common with the iranian and the american government and the american people than meets the eye. >> so i wanted to say something about 10 sentences ago. it doesn't make any sense now. i wanted to go back and say, we have regime changes. you are telling the administration to stay away from the regime change in order to assuage reporters. >> you have to get the policy off the ground. i don't know if the policy is regime change. >> the policy is regime change by not calling it regime change, which always gives us that -- it is brilliant. >> give the best of both worlds and a lot of flexibility, openness. it leaves the

policy toward iran and the creation of the iran action group. from the state department, this is 15 minutes. sec. pompeo: good afternoon, everyone. today, i'm happy to announce the creation of the iran action group. the iran action group will be responsible for directing, reviewing and coordinating all aspects of the state department's iran related activity. they will report directly to me. for nearly 40 years the regime in tehran has been responsible for a torrent of violent and destabilizing behavior toward the united states, allies, partners and the iranian people themselves. in may of this year, president trump withdrew from the iran nuclear deal which failed to restrain iran's nuclear progress or its campaigns of violence abroad. in its place, president trump has instituted a campaign of pressure, deterrence and solidarity with the long-suffering iranian people. our hope is that one day soon we can reach a new agreement with iran, but we must see major changes in the regime's behavior both inside and outside of its borders. the iranian peop

i'll still miss iran.ou live, i mean, how can you say, because then you are here? you... this is america, you havb a stableou have a good life. >> i have a job, i have a stable income., but i still mid still have... >> you have freedom. >> erdbrink: freedom. >> okay, i'm sorry, but my freedom there is much more, y like, open than here... >> erdbrink: what do you mean? i mean... >> here i'm so busy on socl media and something that's, like, just on my phone. over there i'm busy th my friends going out, doing stuff, for, like, experiences and... >> erdbrink: experiences, what do you mean? go to parties, experience?a >> that'ry big experience, trying to, like, not get caught by the police, that's also another experience that, you know, is... >> erdbrink: exciting. >> it's more... it feelslike, more like you're living there, you know, rather than here. it's more ke the routine of wake up, work, school, maybe, like, friends after, and then... ♪ >> erdbrink: romina went on holiday to iran last year. she had the t

president's in game with iran is. i don't think it's clear to anyone with the actual endgame is and i think that's also a very deliberate strategy by the trumpet ministration they relish in confusing the outside world thinking that they actually give the united states an edge when in reality i think is happening is that more and more countries are starting to see the unreliability of the united states as a threat to world peace in and of itself but i think one thing can be said about whatever goal the administration has about this which is that this type of escalation can very easily get out of hand and mindful of the fact that we have very few deescalate really mechanisms left very few exit ramps from this that in itself can lead to a military confrontation even if that isn't the intent of the trumpet ministration that's a good point that you make i'd like to share an egg excerpt from your new book in losing an enemy you write that going into the negotiations that resulted in the iran nuclear deal iran was supposed t

iran. i think this shows that syria remains a major problem in this regard beyond the civil war, beyond the politics. so syria before the war, we have problems with her chemical weapons stockpile. i think it was one of the largest stockpiles in the world if not the largest. there was an nuclear issue with the reactor and i think theory that day and let a telly, it was really eye-opening expense for all of us that covered syria to think that the first time that north korea would be found proliferating outside of its borders would be out in -- of all places, so there's that. of course we had bashar al-assad erratic and benevolent nature and how much different his behavior was vis-À-vis -- [inaudible] brutal but more predictable. the shar haber was all over the place. since the war and after the war so to speak it's clear syria is becoming an even bigger problem on chemical weapons use, on chemical weapons, , we had utilities for cases which are verified by the regime, to buy isis, but then yo

lead on iran the goal of my call on european states to talk about halting iran to join this movable it's time to stop talking it's time for action this is exactly what the united states has done and this is what europe should do mostly open so close around what europe should do that's big talk coming there from israel but other than israel in the u.s. there is no other big power supporting transplant the e.u. is not alone at all is. no not at all this is one of those times where the e.u. is sticking together you've had a drink statement by the british german and french governments saying we are going to stick with the iran deal and we're going to protect our companies brant all right a correspondent terry holt on the story for us tonight in brussels for perry thank you very much. will social media platforms have banned as the tory is us conspiracy theorist alex jones today for promoting hate speech facebook you tube and spotify every move content by jones the founder of the info wars website he promotes conspiracy theories including the nine eleven terrorist attacks were staged by the us

the us is rolling out those sanctions on iran. but how vulnerable is it's economy and how much will it hurt ordinary iranians? and some entrepreneurs are giving the cosmetic industry a make—over by selling their brands on instagram. and on the markets: the same and the nikkei are up. —— so the same and the nikkei are up. —— so those issues around at whether it is china, the us or iran and the us, they are factored in. the hang seng and the nikkei are up. just half an hour ago us sanctions on iran have come back into force. they were reimposed when president trump pulled out of an international deal designed to stop iran developing nuclear weapons. for many western companies, president trump's decision means they have to choose whether they would rather trade with iran or the united states, which is the world's biggest economy. us companies have far less to loose than their european rivals. us trade with iran was just under $200 million last year but for the eu it was more than $24 billion as it continued to grow after the 2015 nuc

lived in iran for twenty.

iran you're iran exposure can be a problem indeed or iran is already reacting to this they put in place. measures to emergency measures to stop the collapse of its currency which is slant to record lows against the u.s. dollar since the start of the year what impact is that having is it working the video only to say they started that on monday but sell. as we all know you can stand against the market and iran was trying to stand against the forex market and by not allowing foreign exchange to have your creative panic. there really are. to assert of its value and now by allowing foreign exchange offices again and releasing to subsidize. to bring the official rate and the market rate closer to go along so you believe that this will work because at the moment at this rate the country can't even import just prohibitively expensive. what the americans haven't done you ran you know it's. been quite efficient doing it themselves so. they hopefully can repel and undo what they have done so far and this is only the first wave of sanctions against iran u.s. sanctions against iran being told there

essentially the charge that trump is putting to iran is that the government to iran is that putting iran first. when you are putting the assad regime over the well-being of young people you're not putting iran first. when you're having a watered-down deal over the caspian sea in your not asserting iranians. it is a poor steward of the iranian national interest. this is key. set about demonizing the iranian people are continuing to keep the pressure on the apparatus of oppression. there's more, with the iranian people and the american government than we see. i wanted to say something about ten sentences ago. >> i wanted to go back and say that we have regime change. so they're staying away from the term the regime change in order to sway reporters. >> you're going to be handicapped here. i don't know if the policies regime change. i think it's behavior change. >> by not calling it regime change i was think it's brilliant. >> if you had the best of both worlds you have flexibility and openness. it leaves it open for the iranian regime to think that it can actually meet the 12 demands and h

well at least you can see that iran has politics unlike north korea for example in iran you have always had a debate about how to deal with the u.s. and now with donald trump in office and his surprising offer to talk some are saying it's just empty words don't don't even think about it others are saying it's worth trying and then there is another group that says we have no choice but to talk to the u.s. i wouldn't call it figures but there is certainly a heated debate about how to how to look forward and i think the upcoming weeks will be interesting in that regard we know that rouhani is considered a pragmatist and he has done his best to open the door to the west he's now facing challenges from anti western hardliners in tehran i mean how serious are these really imposed sanctions for his leadership. i mean look if you if you look if you think about what president rouhani was aiming at he wanted to normalize trade with iran and basically enter the era without any sanctions on the country and now the u.s. is really imposing sanctions and there is nothing you can do about it so for him

these are sanctions to try and bring the iran to the table.s first round of sanctionss that goes into effect in the next couple of hours is affecting the sale of uranium and american banknotes, as well as raw materials, steel, aluminium, car parts and the oil—related sanctions in november that are set to be reimposed. this will heap economic pain on tehran and put downward pressure on their currency and the us is trying to weaken the government's hold on its population and to try and force them to come to the table. and if it increases unrest in iran, it is likely to surelt damage the more moderate factions in the iranian leadership and strengthen the hardliners? right now we're seeing a lot of discourse and debate in the iranian establishment about what should they do economically to ride out the storm. you see some agreement between the moderate and hardliner camps on how to manage the immediate concerns in the near term. the immediate economic concerns iran has is managing the currency value, managing their currency from even further plumme

china is very important to iran's economy china is now currently iran's biggest trading partner trade between these two grew in fact by more than eight percent in two thousand and seventeen china buys more crude oil from iran than any other country something like eight hundred thousand barrels a day and those figures really tell you how china provides such an important economic artery to iran the question hour is what will the united states do to china once it begins to sanction iranian oil on november the fourth will it penalize china china has various ways i think of getting round sanctions it can use banks that only deal in the chinese currency rather than the u.s. dollar that's one way but as we've seen in the past the united states has been quite prepared to go after chinese companies that are violated sanctions against iran the giant chinese telecommunications company. is a case in point it was heavily fined by the united states and is still recovering from that fine iran of course is important to china for other reasons geo political reasons china sees iran as playing a pivotal

out of the two thousand and fifteen iran nuclear deal iran's president says the tough administration is waging psychological warfare on the iranian people sanctions are likely to weaken iran's of currency which has dropped sharply since trump's decision the u.s. has stopped imports from iran including food cars and carpets the sanctions also limit iran's ability to buy raw materials like steel and coal as well as precious metals and then at the start of november more sanctions will kick in as will target iran's oil industry and foreign banks that do business with the country so we begin our coverage now with same bus ravi in tehran. in a televised interview on the eve of u.s. sanctions snapping back into place iran's president admonished america praised his european allies and asked his people for a little more time to fix the country's economy and that to push that are they going to have him standing we need more solidarity we should be more united i'm telling my dear people god willing with your help we will get through this problem these problems won't be long term problems if we

are iran's main trading partners almost twenty percent of iran's total trade is with china the second biggest partner is the u.a.e. making up close to seventeen percent and then in third not far behind actually those twenty eight nations that make up the european union sixteen point three percent of trade with iran the primary exports from iran of course oil gas petrochemical. for vegetables as well we should point out its main imports farming machinery vehicles cereals iron and steel the biggest hit though money wise i should say is likely to come in the airline industry about thirty eight billion dollars in deals has been agreed with and western firms but now the fate of iran's airline industries in doubt sanctions making it pretty tough to upgrade that aging fleet of planes which are run air as has so we've got to leave with us knowledge on us from washington d.c. director of the iran project at the international crisis group ali of had a comment from one of our viewers on facebook live kathy who said quite simply they are u.s. sanctions they are not world sanctions on iran and tha

against iran a tweet that came with a warning undeniably aimed at europe anyone doing business with iran will not be doing business with the united states tonight trump against the world yet again all he's asking for this time he says is world peace i'm bored golf in berlin this is the day. as you get in with the trump and his government are the ones who have rejected negotiations and have turned their back on diplomacy. what's the meaning of negotiations when you impose sanctions at the same time that trump is doing is against the iranian nation and against the national interests of iran. well missing if there is honesty in the process. so coming up tonight he was seven years old when his mother and her partner pimped him out to pedophiles online today a german court sentenced both child abusers to prison. staffan in southwestern germany was where the man and woman offered customers on the darknet the chance to rape her son at least six men travelled from germany switzerland and spain to take advantage of that offer. now we begin the day with a threat from donald trump to the rest of th

advises european firms looking to do business in iran. he's noticed a growing number of companies getting cold feet since president trumps threats to punish those trading with iran. they also want to know what its commitment required to do good business in iran is enormous despite the profits to be potentially made right now companies see the costs involved as too great a risk. to cause. a simple sales manager amir so today can only hope for better times for now he's continuing to offer after sales service to his a rainy and customers even if currently they cannot buy any of the machines each costing several hundred thousand euros. we are getting more difficult because every bank hesitates to iran business and they don't like to do. any transaction with iran so a lot of customers they don't know how to pay for our service charges and how key support. and this can be because european technology is in demand in iranian industry but chinese and russian firms are ready to fill any gap in supply which for multivac would mean a serious loss in

, get it back inside iran. whyt's one of the reasons any discussion with iran about their nuclear wpons program has to take place in this eroader context or else we'r ignoring a significant aspect of the iranian threat. >> just want to ask in the brief time have ik a couple of questions on north korea. north korea has frozen nuclea tests, as you know, they have run up the ent rans to their nuclear test facility, shut down an engine testing site, they handed over remains of u.s. soldiers and north korea new says that the u.s. is backtracking from some of the commitments that the president made in singapore, what steps has the u.s. taken to liv the president's commitments in singapore to provide security guarantees ando establish a new relationship with north korea. >> well, the president at singapore suspended majorex cises, joint exercises between the united states and south korea. at has been done. but what was significant about singapore was the north korean commitment to denuclearize and they have not taken

iran. >> it's a map of iran. (erdbrink speaking): get back in the car. >> and yet, life and love goes on. g >> erdbrink: we'rena make baby! >> why are you... (gun firing) >> three years later, "our man in tehran." >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like yo thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t.hu macafoundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the ont lines of social change worldwide. atordfoundation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation: e committed ellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to hghtening public awarenes of critical issues. the john and helen glessnerly farust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo an

seeing between iran and russia. as you describe at the end of the day interested in the sacrement for some years there or not but now their interests. after the issue of the nuclear after the u.s. sanctions and after the fact that the europeans are not really going to be able to do much with regard to them if it actually meant is looking towards. looking towards not russia and these other countries are for and i'm sorry for it i'm sorry interrupt you but let me let me let me just for it sorry to interrupt you but let me just pick up another point because after the agreement was reached iranian president rouhani called it a very important step but he also added that we should recognize there are more important issues that need to be addressed what specifically is he alluding to when he says that. i think you're talking about geopolitics the fact that iran is. so your sanctions you don't need to make sure that its relations with its neighbors are normal and advancing. iran is looking at ways of going around the sancti

well at least you can see that iran has politics unlike north korea for example in iran you have always had a debate about how to deal with the u.s. and now with donald trump in office and his surprising offer to talk some are saying it's just empty words don't don't even think about it others are saying it's worth trying and then there is another group that says we have no choice but to talk to the u.s. i wouldn't call it fisheries but there is certainly a heated debate about how to how to look forward and i think the upcoming weeks will be interesting in that regard we know that rouhani is considered a pragmatist and he has done his best to open the door to the west he's now facing challenges from anti western hardliners in tehran i mean how serious are these really imposed sanctions for his leadership. i mean look if you if you look if you think about what president rouhani was aiming at he wanted to normalize trade with iran and basically enter the era without any sanctions on the country and now the u.s. is really imposing sanctions and there is nothing you can do about it so for h

and been some minor isolated not iran well the u.s. secretary of state might pompei i disagree strongly with that he says that the sanctions and needed against iran to bring them back to what he calls the table of normal nations they've got to behave like a normal country that's the ask is pretty simple we think that most other countries everyone with whom i spoke understand that they need to behave normally and they understand that this is a country that threatens them it would seem that those countries that secretary pompei i spoke to were not countries because this is where we stand at the moment the european union has issued its toughest legislation to protect companies doing business in iran essentially saying that they won't support u.s. sanctions and they're going to do their best to try and keep the iran nuclear deal alive even without the united states you know any president has dismissed trump's call for talks saying diplomatic dialogue needs honesty which he says the u.s. president lacks. you saw there aren't any good number

will seize imports from iran including food cars and carpets sanctions will also limit iran's ability to buy raw materials like steel coal along with precious metals and then in another ninety days that's the start of november more sanctions will kick in they'll include measures specifically targeting the oil sector as well as foreign banks that do business with iran and the european union says it is sticking to the twenty fifteen a nuclear deal with iran it says it deeply regrets the u.s. re imposing sanctions iran's foreign minister says it will overcome the economic measures and won't change its regional policies from tehran zain basra the reports . on july fourteenth two thousand and fifteen america and iran made history with the help of germany france china and russia the decades long signed a joint comprehensive plan of action the agreement years in the making used economic sanctions in return for curbs on iran's development of nuclear technology . signed in vienna it was celebrated and. many iranians thought the lifting of sanctions which had crippled the economy for years was