You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (1265)

PLAYS: (1284)

The panel on AC360 responds to the news that Iran has agreed to move most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment, and then to France to be turned into fuel rods to power a Tehran reactor used for medical research.

COOPER: Breaking news on Iran. U.S. negotiators sitting across the table from Iranian diplomats today in Geneva, hammering out a deal that will allow inspection of a newly-suspected nuclear site.

Now, under the agreement, Iran would also ship all those non- weapons-grade uranium to other countries for further enrichment. But only enough enrichment to use in reactors, not in bombs.

Joining me now is Reza Aslan, author of "How to Win a Cosmic War" and a contributor to Daily Beast. Also Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford. And on the phone, Candy Crowley.

Reza, how big a deal is this?

ASLAN: Well, it's actually quite significant. I mean, one of the major issues that we had with Iran was its stockpile of low enriched uranium. And, frankly, eight years of an administration that refused to talk to Iran unless it stopped its enrichment process resulted in eight years of uninterrupted enrichment.

And in an afternoon, we managed to make some sort of agreement for Iran to reduce its nuclear stockpile, its enriched uranium stockpile by about 75 percent. So that's a fairly significant deal.

COOPER: Abbas, is there reason to be cautious about, A, their willingness to follow-through with this and, perhaps, the real significance of it?

Continue reading »

Reza Aslan weighs in on Iran's reform movement and the fight for the future of the Islamic Republic.

Aslan wore the green armband as a show of support for the Reform movement. Aslan also said "Thank god for Barack Obama," and not some more militant blowhard making bombastic statements who would have made the situation much worse, a move which would have led to more bloodshed and ended the reform movement. Hooman Majd called such people Ahmadinejad's useful idiots.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: (1220)

PLAYS: (4406)

Reza Aslan takes Chris Matthews to task for fear mongering on Iran. Matthews seemed positively flummoxed when Aslan pointed out to him that our own intelligence agencies have said that Iran is years away from developing a nuclear weapon, and that Iran might actually have a reason to be afraid of Israel. Matthews also seemed to have a lot of trouble understanding why those in power might want to hype the threat of Iranian nukes for political purposes. Imagine that.

MATTHEWS: Reza, what good does speaking the truth do -- and he has spoken it in terms of our relationship with Iran -- do to our relationship with Iran?

ASLAN: You know, he mentioned the CIA coup of 1953, which most Americans don`t know anything about, but which, I got to tell you, is like the core event, the ur-event of the 20th century as far as Iranians are concerned. It`s their revolutionary war, civil war all wrapped up into a single thing. And to hear a president even mention it, let alone acknowledge it in that way, had a huge effect in the cafes in Iran.

Let`s face it, you know, what Iranians want, and this has been proven over and over again -- just yesterday, a poll came out from Terror Free Tomorrow showing 77 percent of Iranians wanting to open up relations with the United States. This is not just about sort of a better international relationship with America, it`s about Iran`s own domestic situation.

As you know, the economy in Iran is on the verge of collapse. You`ve got a 26 percent inflation rate, you know, 13 percent unemployment rate. They need America in a way that they haven`t before, and it seems like for the first time in many, many years, both sides, both Iran and America, are ready. You know, in the `90s, Iran wanted to talk to America. America wasn`t ready. Later on...

MATTHEWS: Reza, You know, I worry about us facing a situation that could be horrendous, which is to have to choose between living with a bomb in the hands of the Iranian mullahs or -- I mean a nuclear bomb -- or going to war with them in a way that causes hatred for another thousand years, not just a decade or two. And that scares me.

ASLAN: Neither of those are likely. Neither of those are likely scenarios.

MATTHEWS: How so?

Continue reading »

Anderson Cooper 360 covering some of Barack Obama's first formal televised interview since being elected President on al-Arabiya. David Gergen and Reza Aslan weigh in and are impressed to say the least.

From Raw Story:

For his first, formal, televised interview as President of the United States, Barack Obama could have gone anywhere. But instead of CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS or any other major American outlet, he's spoken to al-Arabiya, the largest network news provider in the Arab world.

h/t to the HuffPo who has the entire interview transcript available.

MELHEM: Let me take a broader look at the whole region. You are planning to address the Muslim world in your first 100 days from a Muslim capital. And everybody is speculating about the capital. (Laughter.) If you have anything further, that would be great.

How concerned are you -- because, let me tell you, honestly, when I see certain things about America -- in some parts, I don't want to exaggerate -- there is a demonization of America.

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely.

MELHEM: It's become like a new religion, and like a new religion it has new converts -- like a new religion has its own high priests.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

MELHEM: It's only a religious text.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

MELHEM: And in the last -- since 9/11 and because of Iraq, that alienation is wider between the Americans and -- and in generations past, the United States was held high. It was the only Western power with no colonial legacy.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

MELHEM: How concerned are you and -- because people sense that you have a different political discourse. And I think, judging by (inaudible) and Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden and all these, you know -- a chorus --

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I noticed this. They seem nervous.

MELHEM: They seem very nervous, exactly. Now, tell me why they should be more nervous?

Continue reading »