Film: Iranians Vow Massive Response to Any U.S. AttackFrontline does it again. Fresh after the documentary show’s penetrating look at Dick Cheney’s pet legal theories, it travels to Tehran to explore the slowly building crisis between the U.S. and Iran. In doing so, Frontline pulls off a real coup, presenting the first-ever televised interview with Mohammed Jafari, a Qods Force commander and deputy leader of Iran’s national security council.
Jafari isn’t a household name, but in U.S.-Iranian relations, he’s a big deal. Earlier this year, the U.S. raided the Iranian consulate in Erbil in an attempt to capture him, but Jafari wasn’t at the consulate during the raid. Frontline describes him as one of the architects of Iran’s Iraq policy — which, the U.S. alleges, includes providing weapons to anti-American insurgent and militia groups — and had the raid succeeded, U.S.-Iranian relations could very well have reached a crisis point.
In the documentary, Jafari promises retaliation against any U.S. military strike on Iran:
You will not find a single instance in which a country has inflicted harm on us and we have not responded. So if the United States makes such a mistake, they should know that we will definitely respond. And we don’t make idle threats.
He’s joined in that sentiment by Hossein Shariatmadari, a mouthpiece for “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i:
As the Supreme Leader has said, if we’re attacked we will threaten all American interests around the globe. The first step would be that all areas in Israel are in reach of our missiles, I mean there is not a single place in Israel outside the range of our missiles.
Showdown With Iran airs tonight on PBS.