The Pariah State - S1.E2

The award-winning producers of The Death Of Yugoslavia, The Fall Of Milosevic and Elusive Peace, talk to two top Revolutionary Guard commanders, who describe how they persuaded Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to let them launch, fund, and train Hezbollah in Lebanon.

President George HW Bush, in his inaugural address, told Iran that the release of hostages in the Lebanon would lead the United States to show "goodwill" (an end to sanctions and the welcoming of Iran back into the community of nations). Iran's President Rafsanjani duly put pressure on the hostage-takers and secured their release, but by that time the US was so angered by what it saw as Iran's continuing support for terrorism that Bush and his advisers decided that they could not deliver.

In an exclusive interview, Mohammad Khatami, President of Iran from 1997 to 2005, describes how he set out to improve relations with the West and, for the first time, looks back on how he struggled with hardliners in Iran to relieve the country of its pariah status and achieve good relations with the West.

Step one was "people-to-people" diplomacy – a wrestling team became the first US delegation to visit Iran since the revolution and the two team captains describe how, after the match, the American proudly held aloft a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader.

The programme ends with the story of an extraordinary attempt by US Secretary Of State Madeleine Albright to meet the Iranian foreign minister. Told he would be present at a meeting at the United Nations in New York, she attended and made friendly remarks addressed to him. But the leader of the Iranian delegation turned out to be the Foreign Minister's deputy. Albright, the deputy and others present describe the scene, their embarrassment and disappointment.