The so-called Stuxnet worm is specifically designed to infiltrate and sabotage real world power plants, factories … Storyville: Zero Days: Nuclear Cyber Sabotage, news, BBC 2017
In Iran alone it was identified 30,000 times. A super computer virus has put on alert several countries’ secret services. ibid.
What was it about the Stuxnet operation that was hiding in plain sight? ibid. commentary
Multiple explosions of gas pipelines going in and out of Iran. ibid. expert
This was obviously the first, biggest and most sophisticated example of a state or two states using a cyber weapon for offensive purposes. ibid.
Israel asked US for green light to bomb nuclear sites in Iran. ibid. online news headline
There were probably only a few countries in the world that would want, that had the motivation, to sabotage Iranian’s nuclear enrichment facility. There are no tell-tale signs. ibid. expert
Even civilians with an interest in telling the Stuxnet story were refusing to address the role of Tel Aviv and Washington. ibid. commentary
Iran: The nuclear option should not at all be taken off the table. Hillary Clinton
You feel sometimes when you hear analysts and knowledgeable people talking about Iran that they fear so much about the survival of the regime, because deep down it’s not a legitimate regime, it doesn’t represent the will of the people, it’s kind of morphed into kind of a military theocracy. Hillary Clinton
We would very much like to see Iran take a position as a responsible leader that doesn’t intimidate or threaten or scare its neighbours and others. But the choice is really up to Iran and we’re going to keep working to try to come out with the right decision. Hillary Clinton
A nuclear-weapons armed Iran is not in anyone’s human-rights interests. That is a direct threat to the lives and the livelihoods and the stability not only of the region but beyond. Hillary Clinton
In Iran, fundamentalism was fuelled to an extent by the regime of the Shah being supported by the West. Salman Rushdie
In any authoritarian society, the possessor of power dictates, and if you try and step outside, he will come after you. This is equally true of Sovietism, of China and of Iran, and in our time it has happened a lot in Islam. The point is that it’s worse when the authoritarianism is supported by something supernatural. Salman Rushdie
I hate Iran. I hate the Iranian government. It’s a cruel and evil government. Doris Lessing
The reason the United States is not so likely to invade Iran is precisely because of the lessons learned from Iraq. And conversely, the Iranian push towards nuclear capability is calculated to deter invasions like the kind deposing Saddam Hussein. Steven Pinker
The United States' administrations ... must recognize that Iran is a big power. Having said that, we consider ourselves to be a human force and a cultural power and hence a friend of other nations. We have never sought to dominate others or to violate the rights of any other country. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Nuclear energy is the scientific achievement of the Iranian nation. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
I found that many Americans did not even know that a country named Iran existed, let alone what it was like. Even among the diplomatic corps and among well-educated people, there was a vagueness about who the Iranians were or what the culture was, a tendency to confuse Iran with Iraq or to mistakenly assume that Iran is an Arab country simply because it is an Islamic nation. This fuzziness about the world outside is unique to America; among the intelligentsia of European countries, for example, there is generally a higher level of awareness and information regarding cultures other than their own. Ashraf Pahlavi, Faces in a Mirror
If we are really anxious not to have nuclear weapons in Iran, the first thing is to call an international conference on abolishing all nuclear weapons, including Israeli nuclear weapons. Bruce Kent
As far as US intelligence knows, Iran is developing nuclear capacities, but they don’t know if they are trying to develop nuclear weapons or not. Chances are they’re developing what’s called ‘nuclear capability’, which many states have. That is the ability to have nuclear weapons if they decide to do it. That’s not a crime. Noam Chomsky
We like to forget the history, Iranians don’t. In 1953, The United States and Britain overthrew the parliamentary government [in Iran] and installed a brutal dictator … In 1979, the population overthrew the dictator. And since then the United States has been essentially torturing Iran: first tried the military coup, and then supported Saddam Hussein during Iraq’s invasion of Iran which killed hundreds of thousands of people, and after that United States started imposing harsh sanctions on Iran. Noam Chomsky, cited The Real News November 2007
The Nixon Doctrine had established Iran under the Shah and Israel as the ‘cops on the beat’ in the region. Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy
It did not go entirely unnoticed that the reaction was rather different when the US warship Vincennes shot down an Iranian civilian airliner in a commercial corridor off the coast of Iran – out of ‘a need to prove the viability of Aegis’, its high-tech missile system, in the judgement of US Navy commander David Carlson who ‘wondered aloud in disbelief’ as he monitored events from a nearby naval vessel. ibid.
The secret plots that led to the start of the Iran/Iraq War ... The war that cost over a million lives. The Edge of War s1e4: Saddam & the Ayatolla, AHC 2012
Saddam Hussein hopes the fall of the Shah plays into his hands. ibid.
1979: Iranian students overrun the American embassy in Tehran. ibid.
For Saddam Hussein, Khomeini’s violent purge is an incredible turn of events. ibid.
September 22nd 1980: Suddam Hussein unleashes his military might. ibid.
A bitter and seemingly endless war along the border. ibid.
Over the last two years four Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed; they are believed to be pre-emptive assassinations designed to stall Iran’s nuclear programme. Peter Taylor, Modern Spies II, BBC 2012
Britain's refusal to share Iran’s oil equally with the country’s new political leader was a disastrous misjudgment. Iain Stewart, Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World II, BBC 2015
Mosaddegh: Operation Ajax was a new approach to energy security: one in which political treachery was an acceptable tactic in pursuit of oil. ibid.
In 1971 the Shah of Iran threw a party at Persepolis, the ancient capital of the Persian Empire. It paved the way for the downfall of the Shah and ushered in an era of Islamic revolutions. Decadence and Downfall: The Shah of Iran’s Ultimate Party, caption, BBC 2016
‘This firm belief that I have a mission … I have a divine command of doing what I am doing.’ ibid. Shah 1974
In 1967 the Shah of Iran crowns himself ‘King of Kings’. ibid. caption
In 1941 the Allies invade Iran, forcing the Shah’s father to abdicate and leave for South Africa. ibid.
In 1952 the Shah’s supremacy was challenged by the popular Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh … Mosaddegh was finally toppled by a British-American backed coup. ibid.
Ruhollah Khomeini, a little known radical cleric, leads the opposition against the Shah’s reforms. ibid.
Q) What do you wish for most?
Iranian woman: A better life, a lot of money, being able to have fun. ibid. television interview
‘One of the most historic cultural gatherings the world has ever seen.’ ibid. Orson Welles
‘There were two queues – one of kings and queens and one of lesser mortals – like presidents and prime ministers: unbelievable!’ ibid. commentator
At its peak there were said to be over 5,000 political prisoners and 10,000 secret police. ibid.
The day after the Pageant, the party moved to the capital, Tehran. ibid.
He leaves Iran, never to return. ibid.
I’m in Paris chasing an Iranian spy ring across western Europe. This is the MEK, the Mujahedeen-E-Khalq. The MEK is an enigma; there’s is a complicated history of shadows and spies and shifting alliances. They were exiled from Iran in the 1980s and they’ve been fighting to take Iran ever since. They’ve been backed by Saddam Hussein; he gave them safe harbour to continue their fight. They’ve been backed by George W Bush who also opposed Iran … I met them after the American invasion. Uncensored with Michael Ware, National Geographic 2017
It is these young women who have driven tanks, fired weapons and given up their normal lives. ibid.
There is a sense of engineered group-think. ibid.
Are any of them still alive? ibid.
The Iraqi government, once their friends, is now their enemy. ibid.
‘Our wish is that we can bring about regime change without the spill of, you know, one drop of blood.’ ibid.