Edinburgh Book Festival: James Buchan, "How Ordinary Iranians Viewed the Revolution" Review

Who runs Iran? Is its military still powerful? What is the legacy of the 1979 revolution that produced an Islamic state?

James Buchan's book Days of God looks at the history of he revolution which he told the Edinburgh International Book Festival audience on Thursday left the UK and the US out of their depth in terms of their response.

A disastrous war with Iraq left the country's military woefully ill-equipped which explains the push towards nuclear weapons, Buchan said.

According to the writer Tehran's current support for the Assad regime was partly to maintain its links to the Shia Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.