Iran and the US (past)

A fairly recent past... from 'Iran & the West', shown in March on BBC TV (*).

(Part 2) Negotiations to free French hostages (in Lebanon) were undermined by the opposition - led by Jacques Chirac.

(Part 3) John Bolton, head of arms control at the State Department, took a different view from most of those in the department, but as Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's deputy, said, he was put in the position he was in by the vice-president.

Talking to him, the French negotiator, Stanislas de Laboulaye, said was like talking to a Soviet bureaucrat: when the British, French and Germans flew to Washington for what they hoped would be breakthrough talks, he just read from a prepared paper.
 
Not that Powell and Armitage could blame Bolton for everything. Condoleeza Rice, when she took over, was horrified to learn that the Department had only half of 1 person specializing on Iran.

* Lapping Productions, produced by Norma Percy.

(To be concluded)