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The Amanpour Hour

Interview With U.N. Undersecretary-General For Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher; Interview With Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide; Interview With Philippine Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro; Interview With Environmentalist Bill McKibben; The Education Indoctrination Behind Iran's Revolution; West End And Broadway Dim Lights In Memory Of Robert Fox. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired March 28, 2026 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:38]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone, and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR. Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They want to make a deal. The reason they want to make a deal is they have been just beaten (ph).

AMANPOUR: Negotiate or escalate. Global economic disruption after one month of America and Israel's war with Iran, innocents dying and displaced. I'll speak to the U.N.'s relief chief about the people at the heart of this and what help they're getting, if any.

Then --

ESPEN BARTH EIDE, NORWEGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Like most European countries, that we are not going to enter the war and take part in the fighting and military vessels.

AMANPOUR: Transatlantic fractures as Europe pushes back against Trump's war, what are the consequences? I asked Norway's foreign minister.

And Asia bearing the brunt with the energy crisis hitting poorer countries on the continent hard. I'm joined by the Philippine foreign minister to find out how they're managing this emergency.

MARIA THERESA LAZARO, PHILIPPINE FOREIGN MINISTER: It's already taking a toll on the ordinary Filipino. The transportation cost, the -- the price of food.

AMANPOUR: Plus is now the moment to shift towards renewables. The renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben makes his case.

And from my archives. From the very start, how Iran's Islamic revolution used education as indoctrination. (END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.

After four full weeks of a punishing war on Iran, the Middle East is reshaping itself before our very eyes. Escalation seems beyond the superpowers' control, while the battered and weakened underdog clings on with leverage and impact far beyond the region.

Larry Fink, chief executive of Blackrock, the world's largest asset manager, warns this week of a global recession if oil is allowed to reach $150 a barrel.

Many Asian countries already suffer energy shortages and emergencies. And Germany's economic minister warns Europe will be next.

And as Israel threatens, in its words, to turn parts of Lebanon into Gaza, thousands have been killed across both Lebanon and Iran. Millions are displaced and on the move, and even humanitarian aid seems to be a quaint relic of wars past, with few of today's main actors bothering to even pay lip service.

Tom Fletcher joined me here in the studio. He's head of the United Nations humanitarian affairs and their emergency relief coordinator. And his inbox is overflowing with so much suffering and need and so few tools and resources.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to our program.

We don't talk very much about the humanitarian catastrophe that's unfolding. Obviously, everything is being viewed in terms of the bombs falling, the assassinations and the economic crisis after the chokehold. What is, in your view, the humanitarian fallout?

TOM FLETCHER, U.N. UNDERSECRETARY-GENERAL FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: Well, it's massive, Christiane. I mean, so we've got thousands dead, as you described. We've got millions displaced across the region. And we'll be paying for this war for years to come.

And people are already -- the world is making choices to spend tens of billions, hundreds of billions of dollars on this conflict rather than on dealing with the survivors, supporting the survivors and supporting the 300 million people who already needed humanitarian support.

So, I mean, we're deeply frustrated with that. I mean, that's diplomatic speak for saying we're furious. Because rich people are winning out of this. The arms dealers are winning. Those speculating on the stock market are winning. And the people I serve are losing.

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: People making bets on this.

FLETCHER: Absolutely. Well, the victims of this conflict are the civilians.

AMANPOUR: Can I ask you, this is kind of the first time that I've sort of been aware of something of such magnitude and massive importance, almost being treated in an unserious way?

You've just talked about, you know, the speculation and I've just talked about the betting, you know, on oil prices and things and stock prices.

Can you remember a time when we didn't hear from the major leaders, when we don't hear the big diplomacy and the set pieces? And it's just hard.

[11:04:50]

FLETCHER: It is hard. And, you know, diplomacy is not reality TV. The world's not a casino. Statecraft is not a real estate deal. We've got to get serious again.

International law is not sexy. It's not exciting, but it's what we built to restrain ourselves from our worst instincts. And we've got to get back to the table. We need rational, serious, strategic conversation again, rather than this day-to-day game show approach to the world.

AMANPOUR: And not just that. It's almost, oh, well, if they don't come to the peace table, we'll just keep bombing. Oh, well. Oh, well. Talking about dropping bombs is fun. You know, letting -- it's very weird.

I've never heard this kind of cynicism being expressed from the highest podiums in the world.

And in the meantime, so tell me, what is the humanitarian crisis? Let's take Iran first, and then we'll go to Lebanon.

FLETCHER: Well, just to finish your point there, I mean, what we're not hearing is anything about protecting civilians. And, you know, a year ago, I wouldn't have thought I'd need to come on and use the talking point about protecting civilian infrastructure.

And yet, now it seems to be open season that people are talking about bombing schools, bombing hospitals, bombing bridges. All of those things are war crimes. They're completely unacceptable.

But somehow that's become part of the day-to-day rhetoric here from all sides.

So, the humanitarian impact is massive in Iran. We're scaling up what we're doing there in response, particularly looking at the refugee crisis, where my colleagues at UNHCR are leading an effort to ensure that people already displaced are getting the help they need.

I'll be going to Lebanon in the next few days. It's a real epicenter, I think, of the crisis now, but I fear of the crisis in the weeks and months to come. We can't get our convoys to the south of Lebanon right now because the

bridges have been destroyed.

AMANPOUR: I've heard from the former Israeli prime minister, who I had on the program, I think it was last week, who said that even if the Iran war does, you know, de-escalate and they find some kind of negotiated end to this or whatever, that the Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu, will increase and up the tempo of the attacks in Lebanon.

So, how many dead, how many displaced, and where do you see that ending, and are there the resources?

FLETCHER: We've got over a million displaced. That's one in five people. It's staggering. And remember, many of those people were already displaced.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

FLETCHER: And they're often being displaced from one ethnic area into another, which creates all sorts of tensions and further dangers.

You've also got hundreds of thousands moving back and forth across the Lebanon-Syria border. I'll be in Damascus later this week as well.

So, I do fear that we might get to a point in Iran where both sides claim some sort of Pyrrhic victory, but that conflict in Lebanon will continue.

And you're hearing some pretty chilling things from Israeli ministers about turning the south of Lebanon into Gaza. I've been to Gaza twice in the last year, as you know. That is a terrifying thing to be talking about.

AMANPOUR: I mean, there's another thing. It's like, oh, they say that and nobody really pays attention or reacts. It's very weird, and you talked about potential war crimes.

You know, the Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, last week or earlier this week, tweeted after Trump said, you'd better open the -- to the Iranians -- you better open the Straits of Hormuz within, you know, 48 hours or we will destroy and target all your power plants. And Murphy says that's, in fact, a war crime.

FLETCHER: Well, some of us do try and speak out, and the United Nations Secretary-General has been very, very firm in calling this kind of language, this kind of behavior out.

You know, it's our job, isn't it, your job in the media and my job in the U.N., to keep focusing attention on international law. But just talking in those terms will get us a load of blowback from those who disagree, who think that we should just be ignoring this and moving on to the next episode of the game show.

AMANPOUR: Can I play -- you just mentioned the Secretary-General -- let me just play what he said yesterday about the chaos of a widening war. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: Just hours into the outbreak of the war in the Middle East, I warned that the fighting risks triggering a chain reaction that no one could control.

More than three weeks on, the war is out of control. The conflict has broken past the limits even leaders thought unimaginable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: You know, that's serious stuff, and you've warned we're seeing consequences spread faster than we can respond.

So, the World Food Programme, roughly 45 million more people could be pushed into acute hunger if the conflict continues, on top of the 318 million people who already are, as you said, you know, very vulnerable and suffering, you know, food insecurity around the world.

So, as you picture this, because we just reported before you came on, it's even going towards -- well, very much hitting Asia right now. And it's not just they can't fill up their cars, they can't buy food, they can't afford to feed their children, many of these workers.

FLETCHER: Well, the Secretary-General's been absolutely clear on this and he's really meeting the moment. We are really concerned about those secondary and tertiary impacts.

So, you look at what's happening in Afghanistan, Pakistan. Look at what's happening in Iraq right now. Again, big populations already displaced, fragile economies.

[11:09:48]

FLETCHER: I'm particularly worried about East Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. If we can't get our maritime convoys moving through the Straits of Hormuz, then actually more people will be tipped into famine conditions.

That World Food Programme stat is really, really worrying. 45 million more people could be pushed into hunger.

So, we're now having to adapt our routes. We're actually taking much of the supplies from Dubai now to Jeddah and across.

AMANPOUR: There are other things as well that are happening under cover of this war. Let's say in the West Bank, the Occupied West Bank.

Haaretz has now reported that a 17-year-old, Walid Ahmad, who was arrested from the West Bank in 2024, starved to death inside Israel's Megiddo Prison. He's the first Palestinian under 18 to die.

Autopsy found no singular definitive cause, but saw the teen suffered from extreme malnutrition and a judge ruled that starvation didn't prove the cause of death, I don't quite understand this.

But what do you make of it? And there have been others, maybe just not as young.

FLETCHER: So, one real worry about this crisis, we only have bandwidth really for two or three stories at a time. And so, as a result --

AMANPOUR: Start bringing them all up.

FLETCHER: -- a lot of other issues get completely neglected. I mean, Ukraine at the moment, DRC, South Sudan where I've just been, and this rising settler violence in the West Bank, which looks to me to be very organized, very targeted, and which is driving huge numbers of people from their homes.

And that again is storing up problems for the future because it undermines, of course, any prospect of the two-state solution on which actually the future piece of the region depends.

AMANPOUR: Tom Fletcher, thank you very much.

FLETCHER: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And coming up later on the show, Europe pushes back as Washington ramps up pressure on allies over the Iran war. I speak to Norway's foreign minister next.

[11:11:35]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

As Trump presses allies to help open the vital Strait of Hormuz, Europe is pushing back, refusing to be drawn in even as their own economies reel, questioning the United States and Israel's apparent failure to properly wargame Iran's response. But they do want to help in restoring the vital energy supply line.

As POLITICO reports, though, European negotiators are stuck trying to decipher Trump's, quote, "absurdly incoherent" messaging about all of this. A quandary, as we hear from my next guest, the foreign minister of Norway.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, how are you? And welcome to the program. I ask you how you are because of this immense pressure that's been coming on all nations, Europe included, with this war.

ESPEN BARTH EIDE, NORWEGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, thank you for asking.

I mean, this is actually a very dangerous situation because this war does not only create havoc in the Gulf and in the Middle East, but has very serious global consequences. We're seeing the -- not only the rising price of energy, but also the shortages and, you know, the threats to supply. Also, on fertilizer, which means food in the future, and to supply chains in general.

So, this is really a situation that if it's allowed to continue, will be very bad for the people in the region, obviously, who are most affected, but also undermine the global economy.

AMANPOUR: As you know, President Trump has called upon Europe to help. He's variously said, you're ungrateful, you're cowards, you're this and you're that. Norway has been to say, response is to stand up to that pressure and say, Norway will not do that. That was your prime minister.

Do you think the president has made a miscalculation? Do you believe that this war was not just not your war, but a general miscalculation?

EIDE: Well, I'm afraid that what we are seeing now is that at least there was a serious underestimation of the capacity of Iran to conduct a long-term asymmetric counter campaign.

Because, you know, the -- in a certain sense, Iran has the advantage of the underdog that it does not need full spectrum dominance. It only needs to maintain a certain ability to threaten and challenge and create a fear for ships transiting the Hormuz Strait or for the neighboring countries in the Gulf. And that will give them a certain advantage, which is hard to really take out by military means without coming in on the ground, which I understand is unlikely to happen.

And let me just say, it's correct that we have said, like most European countries, that we are not going to enter the war and take part in the fighting and military vessels, for instance.

But we do want to be helpful in trying to see if there are other means by which we can encourage parties to reopen in whole or in part the Hormuz Strait to see if we can get more, you know, more responsible behavior, trying to ensure that at least certain products can get through.

And also, of course, to see if there are ways to help towards a diplomatic settlement.

So, help, yes, but not with a military participation.

AMANPOUR: Marco Rubio, secretary of State, is coming to Europe to meet with the G7. I know you're not G7, but what do you expect that conversation to be?

[11:19:42]

EIDE: So, I hope that that conversation will be around trying to find out where we can have some landing zones, where this war can be brought to an end in a proper manner. Because what we all agree upon, and very strongly so, is that we have to ensure that Iran can never attain a nuclear weapon. They don't have any yet. They were not around the corner in getting them either. And we are -- Norway is a country that takes NATO very seriously. We

are very committed to a stronger European defense inside the collective defense responsibilities of NATO. We believe in the transatlantic bonds, but this particular war is not a NATO war.

Individual members, yes. Some of them have a long-term base agreement with the US. They have facilitated certain use of those, but it's not the NATO. These are not NATO decisions. These are individual decisions.

And, you know, here in Europe, the very large -- the main challenge that we have, is what's going on in Ukraine with Russia, which is our neighbor, Norway's neighbor in the north, and which is waging a legal and very dramatic war in Ukraine still.

And last night there were massive air attacks all over Ukraine. That war is going on.

And one of the consequences of the Iran war is that there is less attention to what's happening in Ukraine. And all the consequences is that one of the countries that actually benefit from these high energy prices is Russia itself. So, they get more money to pay for more weapons to attack Ukraine.

AMANPOUR: Foreign Minister Barth Eide, thank you so much indeed for being with us.

EIDE: Thank you, Christiane.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Norway is Europe's largest oil and gas producer, meaning that it stands to benefit from this massive spike in energy prices. And yet it still wants this war to end before the disruption becomes irreversible.

Still to come, key U.S. allies in Asia have been squeezed the hardest by this global energy crisis. Shortages, strikes and emergencies are spreading fast.

I speak to the Philippines' foreign secretary after the break.

[11:21:48]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

The U.S.-Israel war on Iran has slapped the most acute energy crisis on Asia, which gets its major fuel supplies from the Middle East.

In Bangladesh, fertilizer factories have halted production, which means food prices will soar. In India, long lines of auto rickshaws are forming as drivers wait hours to fill up.

South Korea and Japan are making wartime energy contingencies, while the Philippines has declared a full national emergency and imposed rationing. It is dire.

My next guest is the Philippine foreign secretary, Maria Theresa Lazaro.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Foreign Secretary, welcome to our program.

LAZARO: Thank you very much.

AMANPOUR: You, the Philippines, have become the first country to declare a national emergency because of all of this. How bad is it right now?

LAZARO: Well, again, thank you -- thank you very much, Christiane, for the question.

Yes, indeed. I think for ASEAN, for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, we are the first to declare an energy emergency.

Now, how bad is it? Well, we are looking from the aspect of supply and the prices. It seems that our supply for our petroleum needs is about 40 to 45 days.

And this has really had an impact. Particularly, we may have the supply, but the prices has really have gone high. And we are of the view, particularly President Marcos, is looking into the impact to the economy.

AMANPOUR: What do you think is the worst outcome of all of this? Obviously, on the grand scale of the economy, but in individual sectors, what is the impact already? And what happens if you actually run out of oil and fuel?

LAZARO: Well, first of all, it's already taking a toll on the ordinary Filipino. The transportation cost, the price of food, because it also affects the fertilizers that are being used for our food security.

So, these are all now -- it has its cascading effect from energy issues. It goes now -- it goes down now to our food, agriculture, particularly.

AMANPOUR: Now, you've got about 2.5 million Filipinos living in the Middle East and working there. Are you trying to get them out? Is the fact that some of them are losing their jobs, you know, sort of diminishing the remittances that they send home? What is the crisis for in that regard?

LAZARO: Well, again, this is an issue. Now, let me just get back to the point that one of the pillars of our foreign policy is assistance to nationals.

And therefore, since the situation started in late February, there has been a number of repatriation efforts by both the Department of Foreign Affairs and another agency which is in charge of overseas workers, the Department of Migrant Workers. So, far, there has been almost 2,000 of our contract workers that have been repatriated. And, of course, that goes without saying that they are being taken care of while here in the Philippines.

[11:29:53]

LAZARO: However, there are still a number of people who are requesting to be repatriated, and all efforts are there. And it's continuing, and we have been looking at situations.

If the airspace is closed in certain places in the Middle East, certain airports, then our embassies as well as consulates try to find some land routes.

And therefore, we have still Filipinos, let's say, in Iran, and we're trying to get them out through Turkey. And the same thing with the other countries in the GCC.

AMANPOUR: So, I want to ask you, Foreign Secretary, you are a very close ally of the United States. As I said, Asia appears to be impacted the worst by the energy crisis right now.

Did you get any heads up? Could you have made any contingency plans? And will this sort of maybe push you into an alliance of necessity, perhaps with China? Because your own president has said the Philippines might embrace joint energy exploration with China in the South China Sea.

LAZARO: Well, first of all, the United States has been very helpful in providing us also some energy sources. I mean, all these details are actually with the Department of Energy. But yes, to your question, the United States has even reached out.

Now, to your other query on other countries, of course, there is an effort to also be looking at our traditional partners that we have been getting some of our supplies.

And well, China, this -- correct, this statement was made by the president concerning a possible -- this is something to do with a certain territory whereby the possibility of exploiting the situation now. It has been there in the past and perhaps there will be certain negotiations because of, certain issues on territory -- territorial issues.

AMANPOUR: Do you think you might go into a closer energy partnership with China?

LAZARO: There is such a possibility because of also the need of for our energy sources. And I mentioned also the statement made by the president because there might just be some discussions on a certain disputed territory whereby there could be some kind of discussions and negotiations.

AMANPOUR: Maria Theresa Lazaro, foreign secretary of the Philippines, thank you very much for being with us.

LAZARO: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And it is the whole world, of course.

coming up as the globe is literally over a barrel of fossil fuel dependency, imagine a world of renewables. Is this the time for green energy to shine? That's when we come back.

[11:32:55]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

Americans are waking up every day only to see oil and gas prices soar, rinse and repeat around the world. As we discussed parts of Asia, dependent on the Strait of Hormuz, have already implemented energy emergencies. This week, we heard the shock to the global markets and to people's pockets is greater than the worst energy crises of the past combined.

But unlike the past, renewable power is now competitive with fossil fuels in very many places. So is this the moment that finally accelerates the green energy transition? I asked the globally recognized environmentalist and author Bill McKibben.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Bill McKibben, welcome to the program.

BILL MCKIBBEN, ENVIRONMENTALIST AND FOUNDER, THIRD ACT: Good to be with you as always.

AMANPOUR: You know, as I watch this unfolding and this massive spike on oil prices and gas prices and the danger to that infrastructure, I come back to this word "addiction to fossil fuel". And I wonder if this is the proof positive needed, if any was ever to happen in front of us, that renewables potentially would have avoided this crisis.

MCKIBBEN: You know what they say about addicts hitting bottom and that's what it takes to start getting out of a hole. Maybe, maybe this is something like a bottom.

Clearly, Trump and the Gulf states are very worried that it is. The reason that they're backing off now from this war as desperately as they can is because they're suddenly realizing that $120 a barrel oil is convincing people all over the world that they want an EV in the garage and that they'd a lot rather have a solar farm than a gas-fired power plant.

Look, if you have to rely on Donald Trump for your energy supply, someone as erratic and unstable as the current American leader, wouldn't you rather rely on the sun, which has a pretty good record of coming up more mornings than not?

AMANPOUR: So, people will say, yes, that makes perfect sense. But how quickly can we get all these alternatives that we need?

[11:39:48]

AMANPOUR: I mean, let's face it, Donald Trump and successive administrations have rolled back a lot of the progress.

MCKIBBEN: One can do this at speed, as the Chinese are proving. They've built so much clean energy so fast that they're sitting pretty as this saga unfolds in the Middle East.

It's really a story of the last 36 months, this explosion of renewable energy, first in China, but also increasingly around much of Asia, large parts of Europe.

Look at the Spaniards. They're the one part of Europe that feels free to flip Trump the bird because they have enough sunshine to power their economy.

Everybody's figuring this out. It's not just that it's geopolitically sound. It's not just that it actually does something about the climate crisis, the biggest problem that we actually face, but it's also cheaper.

That's the -- even when oil wasn't $120 a barrel, it was still cheaper to use sun and wind to produce energy than to use oil and gas.

So, it's really possible to do this. The fossil fuel industry has been fighting now a kind of rearguard action to prevent it from happening.

In the U.S., they've been successful because they were able to elect a climate-denying idiot to the presidency. But that's not going to last. It's not even going to last in the U.S. where we've just come through the most wicked heat wave, most anomalous heat wave probably in American history.

The temperature hit 114 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday in March. It broke the old record for the hottest March temperature in America by four degrees.

So, look, this little excursion, as Trump calls it, in Iran and the little excursion of pretending that we didn't need to worry about climate change is over. We're back where we were a few years ago.

The only difference is we have cheap sun, wind, and batteries that would allow us to make very rapid change.

AMANPOUR: I like the way you say cheap because most of the anti- renewable, you know, group have said that it's way too expensive. Trump has said, you know, you must get away from this green scam or your country is going to fail. He said that from the U.N. podium.

Rubio said to appease a climate cult, he's imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people even as our competitors exploit oil and gas and natural gas -- oil and coal and natural gas and anything else, using it as leverage against us.

Give me a reality check on that.

MCKIBBEN: It's complete nonsense. I mean, anybody, beginning with the investment bankers who publish regular data on the levelized cost of energy will tell you that sun, wind, and batteries are the new Holy Trinity. That they produce extraordinary amounts of very cheap energy that runs all day and all night.

And that's why 95 percent of new electric generation around the planet last year came from clean, renewable energy. Oil and gas are old and expensive, and they're getting more expensive by the day.

AMANPOUR: So, I guess my question to you is what is going to change this? What will it take for people to tell their leaders what they need to do?

MCKIBBEN: So, Texas is a good example. It's installing more clean energy than any place in the United States even now. But Trump is successfully slowing it down for the moment.

So, what it takes in the long run will be getting Trump and his party out of office. That begins with the midterm elections. And, in fact, the move towards the midterm elections.

Lots of people are fed up with it for lots of good moral reasons. But there now are millions more people who are just angry at having to pay more for gas than they can possibly afford for no reason.

AMANPOUR: Bill McKibben, thank you so much indeed for joining us.

MCKIBBEN: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And this week, the annual report from the World Meteorological Organization confirms that 2015 to 2025 were the hottest eleven years on record. Every major climate indicator is flashing red now.

Coming up the chants filling the streets of Iran every night, steeped in decades of ideology and conflict, and echoing back to the revolution itself.

From my archives, a rare look inside how the Islamic Republic trained a whole generation to carry that message forward, and why it still resonates for the religious base today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY LAMOTTE, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: They call it their message to the world. "God is great. Khomeini is our leader. Death to America."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:44:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

The regime has brought out its supporters almost every night in Iran. Some chanting slogans for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, others chanting against the United States and Israel.

Watching and listening is a throwback to the 1980s and the Iran-Iraq war. To understand Iran's defiance today, it helps to remember the past.

[11:49:50]

AMANPOUR: So here's another chapter from a CNN series back then, which was called "In The Name Of God". How the young Islamic Republic, under a brutal invasion by a stronger power trained teachers to spread Ayatollah Khomeini's ideology to the next generation.

CNN's Larry Lamotte narrates this report from 1985.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAMOTTE: At first glance, they seem like quiet novices of some religious order, burying themselves in obscure studies. But in Iran, appearances are often deceiving.

They call it their message to the world. "God is great. Khomeini is our leader. Death to America."

They go on to say, "We will fight. We will die. We will not compromise. War. War until victory."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am ready to be killed. But never change my idea.

These are a new breed of warrior. The eyes and ears of Khomeini. School teachers in fact, but teachers with a special mission.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we want some people, some teacher to -- in order to send this ideology to the villages, to the cities. So this institute is a center for training the teacher.

LAMOTTE: This institute in Tehran wants its teachers to indoctrinate the young to help assure that future generations carry on what the ayatollah began.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My chief goal in coming here to study Islam is that I want to become as familiar as possible with Islam and the Holy Books. And with this knowledge I will go with full arms to the schools and I will educate hundreds of students and enlighten them and familiarize them with our dear Islam.

LAMOTTE: Her name is Maide Rasfuni (ph). She is 20 years old. Soon she will be bringing Ayatollah Khomeini's message to schoolchildren throughout Iran.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A person who says I am a Muslim must be willing to sacrifice everything. And anything that God wants them to do they must be willing to do. When they see that Islam is in danger, they have to protect it.

LAMOTTE: These future teachers are carefully selected. The government says out of 200,000 who applied, 500 were chosen. They must be of proven loyalty to the government, fervent believers in Islam, and willing to fight the infidels.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The infidel's heart is black beyond hope. And yes, we will go to war with them for Islam. When Islam is in danger, we are willing to give our own lives. Therefore, we should be willing to take the life of a heretic.

LAMOTTE: They chant, "The goal of women is purity. It is purity as defined by the Koran."

It means they promise to remain virgins until married and let their facial hairs grow as a sign of purity. They will pray five times a day, abstain from alcohol, and follow all of the codes of behavior for good Muslims.

Some women in Iran complain that the government has turned them into second class citizens with a second-rate place in society.

The women in this school view it differently. They have a role, a mission, and appear determined to carry it out. They want to make the ayatollah proud and his theocracy eternal.

That same chant is often heard during Friday prayers in Tehran. Friday prayers are a spiritual staple of the Khomeini government and another vehicle for indoctrination.

Larry Lamotte, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Tough stuff.

For decades, Iran's Islamic leadership has relied not just on brutal repression, but also on that faith, education and ideology to sustain its revolution.

Iran now has one of the highest literacy rates in the entire region. And the regime's grip is weakening with each new generation. Young people coming of age today are facing their most critical turning point yet.

When we come back, remembering a giant of the theater world as Broadway and the West End dim their lights for the legendary producer Robert Fox.

[11:54:39]

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AMANPOUR: And finally, the dazzling lights of Broadway and London's West End were dimmed this week in memory of Robert Fox, one of the most distinguished theater producers of his generation. Fox was behind an array of hits, including "The Boy From Oz", The Lady in the Van", "The Audience" and "Frost/Nixon".

He collaborated with everyone from Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren to Hugh Jackman and Michael Sheen, David Hare and David Bowie.

[11:59:50]

AMANPOUR: Fox was once asked to define the skills of a successful producer. It was, he said, like a combination of poker and chess, with a bit of housey-housey (ph) thrown in. He was a master at successfully balancing the creative and the commercial, and may he forever bask in the footlights.

That's all we have time for. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/audio and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching and see you again next week.