transcript

Global voices on Iranian satellite launch

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MARCO WERMAN: As we reported, Iran says it's put its first domestically-built satellite into orbit. State television showed pictures of the launch of a rocket that the Iranians say carried the Omid satellite. That satellite is designed for research and telecommunications. Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says the launch sent a message of peace to the world. The BBC's Jon Leyne is in Tehran. And Jon, do you think this is being received as a message of peace?

JON LEYNE: Iran says it's peaceful technology. It's technology to improve its telecommunications network. However, as with the nuclear program, you have a situation where what could be peaceful technology could also have a military purpose. And that will be very concerning, I think, to Western capitals.

WERMAN: And specifically how would it have a military purpose?

LEYNE: Well, obviously if you can launch a satellite into space, you can use the same rocket to launch a ballistic missile a long way. And in fact, my understanding is that the rocket used to launch this satellite originates from a North Korean military rocket, which can be used either for civilian or military purposes.

WERMAN: Right. But Mr. Ahmedinejad says it has absolutely no military purposes, is that right?

LEYNE: That's right. He says it has no military purposes. Of course, Iran insists its nuclear program has no military purpose. Nevertheless, the specter – even the remote possibility that Iran could have a nuclear warhead on top of a long-range ballistic missile obviously will make a lot of people very nervous.

WERMAN: And when you've spoken with Iranians about this satellite, what do they say? Do they raise an eyebrow like, “Yeah, right?”

LEYNE: Well, a mixture of responses, actually. Strange enough, a lot of people didn't believe it really happened. But they did say that if it had happened, they would be delighted. And I think this is one of the buttons, if you like, that President Ahmadinejad presses, both with the nuclear program and with this satellite program – is that Iranians are very proud of their technology. They're proud of their nation, obviously, and there is a feeling that Iran was held back in the years under the Shah, wrongly by the West, by America and Britain. And now released from those shackles, it can independently develop its own technology. So there's certainly a wave of – a strain of popular emotion that President Ahmedinejad is tapping into.

WERMAN: And Iranians couldn't believe it happened because they didn't know it was in the works or they didn't believe their government was capable of launching a satellite?

LEYNE: Well, they certainly should know it was in the works, because they've been announcing it's about to happen for months and months. I think more a little bit of skepticism now at just about everything they're told in the news here. Particularly skepticism perhaps about the government's technical abilities, where they can't, for example, make the traffic run smoothly in Tehran.

WERMAN: Now, Jon, Iran isn't just about launching satellites today. They're trying to launch shuttle cogs and they're launching them at the US Women's Badminton team which is trying to get into the Islamic Republic. Tell us about that.

LEYNE: Well, Iran is due to be welcoming a US Badminton team. In fact, they were due to arrive today but their visas, last I heard, hadn't been issued and they were stuck in Dubai. So we'll have to see. There have been a lot of rumors over the last few months about either American teams coming to Iran or Iranian sports teams going to America. Nothing ever seems to come of it – visas don't get issued or one or the other side gets cold feet. But there have, of course, been historic occasions when sport has led diplomacy. There was a famous wrestling match here in the 1990s when the US wrestling team came over, and everybody remembers the png-pong diplomacy in the early ‘70s, which was a precursor to the opening up between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It may happen, but I'll wait and see ‘til it happens.

WERMAN: The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran. Thank you, Jon.

LEYNE: My pleasure.

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