As the United States and Iran are locked in a battle for power and influence across the Middle East -- with the fear of an Iranian nuclear weapon looming in the background -- Frontline gains unprecedented access to the Iranian hard-liners shaping government policy. In "Showdown with Iran," airing Tuesday, Oct. 23 at 9/ 8 p.m. C T on KET2 and Monday, Oct. 29 at 10/9 p.m. CT on KET1, Frontline examines how U.S. efforts to install democracy in Iraq have served to strengthen Iran's position as an emerging power in the Middle East.
"Anyone who attacks us will be very sorry. So if the United States makes such a mistake, they should know that we will definitely respond. And we don't make threats," deputy head of Iran's National Security Council Mohammad Jafari tells Frontline in his first television interview.
"The president has said repeatedly that it is unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons," former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton tells Frontline. "If action is not taken in terms of regime change or, if need be, the use of military force, the question of when Iran achieves nuclear weapons is entirely in Iran's own hands. And that is extraordinarily undesirable."
Before invading Iraq, the Bush administration rebuffed a series of overtures from Iran's reformist government -- among them offers to help the U.S. stabilize Iraq after the invasion -- which culminated in a secret proposal for a grand bargain resolving all outstanding issues between the U.S. and Iran, including Iran's support for terrorism and its nuclear program. The U.S., which had branded Iran part of the "axis of evil," decided on a confrontational approach.
Vali Nasr, author of The Shia Revival , believes the Bush administration's confrontational approach discredited Iran's reformists and inadvertently helped bring the new hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. "The wars of 2001 and 2003 have fundamentally changed the Middle East to Iran's advantage," he says. "The dam that was containing Iran has been broken."
"Showdown with Iran" is a co-production of Frontline and Silverbridge Productions Limited .
