HE Ambassador Daniel Taub yesterday became the first Israeli ambassador to be interviewed by BBC Persian TV, which is aimed at 100 million Persian speakers in Iran and neighbouring countries Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The interview focused on Israel’s concerns about the Iranian nuclear programme and the recent interim agreement signed in Geneva.
During the interview, Taub referred to the close historic relations between Israelis and Iranians, but also detailed Israel’s concerns over the Geneva deal, which “doesn’t dismantle any one of the centrifuges, any part of the plutonium reactor in Arak, or any part of the military aspects of the nuclear programme.”
Speaking after the interview, Taub reflected: “It was important for me to be able to speak directly to the Iranian people and to tell them that Israelis want to see a prosperous Iran, in which not just the leaders but everyone has access to Facebook and Twitter. We also want to see warm relations between our peoples as we have had in the past. However, I also wanted to make clear that this cannot happen as long as Iran’s leaders remain committed to supporting terror and pursuing nuclear weapons.”
The 7-minute interview, dubbed into Farsi, was broadcast on BBC Persian’s main news programme on 27.11 at 18:30. See below a link to watch online: