Iran and the U.S., Part Three: Soleimani's Iran

This message comes from Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Hey. It's Rand. The relationship between The US and Iran is on a lot of people's minds right now, and we've been bringing you episodes from our archives on how that relationship has developed over time. We started in the nineteen fifties with the CIA backed overthrow of the Iranian prime minister. Next, we looked at the Iranian revolution and nineteen seventy nine US hostage crisis, the expansion of conflict into Lebanon, and the start of uranium enrichment programs and cyber warfare. Today, we're looking back at the Iran Iraq war, nineeleven, and the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General, Qasem Soleimani. Our number one is in staff and our five is in staff. We're 56865. We have, I believe it is a, Boeing seven fifty seven. Can you see him up there, sir? That's concurred. It looks like he's rocking his wing. He's rocking stuff before. Oh my I can hear you. I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you, and the people and the people who knock these feelings down will hear all In the tragedy of that moment for those of us who paid attention to Iran, there was this glimmer of hope that both The United States and Iran are adversaries of the Taliban in Afghanistan, which was hosting Al Qaeda. So it seemed like there was this natural convergence of interest. And by all accounts, Iran played a quite constructive role in cooperating with The US and a campaign to get rid of the Taliban in Afghanistan. This is Karim Sajjadpour. A senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment and adjunct professor at Georgetown. Until 2001, Iran was boxed in. It was isolated and surrounded by enemies. On the east side, the enemy was the Taliban regime. On the western side, you know, Baghdad and and and Saddam Hussein's regime. The terrorist attacks of of 09/11/2001 changed that situation completely. Because The US would soon go after both of Iran's enemies. The Revolutionary Guard welcomed the development. The Revolutionary Guard is a military arm of the Islamic Republic Of Iran. It's also called the IRGC. And there were secret meetings in Geneva. The IRGC intelligence officers handed over maps and exact locations of Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan to American representatives, for which American representatives were very thankful because American intelligence presence at the time in Afghanistan was very limited. This is Ali Alphone. He's a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute. He's been researching the Revolutionary Guard for years, and he wrote the book on the topic called do you believe it or not? I don't remember it right now. I don't know. Iran unveiled? Yes. Yes. Iran unveiled. You know, they I never liked the title of …