Interviews | Showdown With Iran | FRONTLINE

Mohammad Ali Abtahi	Abtahi served as reformist President Mohammad Khatami's vice president for parliamentary legal affairs from 2001 until 2004. In this interview, he talks about the reformists' overtures to the United States during that period and the U.S. response. He is not very hopeful about the future of U.S.-Iranian relations; he notes that the current tense atmosphere is "encouraged and capitalized upon by both leaders."	Richard Armitage	As deputy secretary of state during George W. Bush's first term, Armitage supported diplomacy with Iran but didn't see much in the overtures made by the Iranians during this period. Looking ahead, he is fearful of Iran's regional and nuclear ambitions but opposes immediate military action and says, "There is some time for diplomacy to develop."
Hamid Reza Hajibabaei	Hajibabaei is one of the senior hard-liners in Iran's parliament. His interview here conveys the nature of what stands between the United States and Iran. Hajiebabaei's responses to producer Greg Barker's questions illuminate much of Iran's decades-long rage, distrust, misunderstanding, paranoia and grievance against the United States.	Mohammad Jafari	Jafari is deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, a senior commander of the Quds Force, and an architect of Iran's policy inside Iraq. Jafari denies Iran is providing Iraqi Shi'a extremists with explosively formed projectiles (EFP), condemns the United States for working with the Iranian opposition terrorist group the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) and says any military action against Iran would not go unanswered.
Hossein Shariatmadari	Shariatmadari was appointed editor-in-chief of Kayhan, Iran's major state-run newspaper, by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameinei. Here, he discusses his views on the 9/11 terror attacks, the U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the 2003 "grand bargain" fax. He also explains the Supreme Leader's views on America and warns of consequences should America and its allies take military action against Iran.

posted october 23, 2007