:00:05. > :00:15.fire to a vehicle. Those are the headlines. Time for
:00:15. > :00:20.
:00:20. > :00:24.Welcome to a special edition of HARDtalk, a chance to look back at
:00:24. > :00:30.some of our most memorable encounters and an opportunity to
:00:30. > :00:38.show you our new home at the BBC's London
:00:38. > :00:48.London. This building is so steeped Let tions.
:00:48. > :00:55.
:00:55. > :01:04.Let us go inside and relieve a vintage year on how talk. -- relive
:01:04. > :01:08.a vintage year on HARDtalk. The past year has been dominated by
:01:08. > :01:12.turmoil in the Middle East. In Syria, we have seen the
:01:12. > :01:19.intensification of a brutal internal conflict. In Egypt,
:01:19. > :01:22.elections but no consensus on the country's future cast. HARDtalk
:01:22. > :01:32.reflected on the lessons to be uprisings
:01:32. > :01:37.uprisings in Tunisia. I went to the capital to meet the
:01:37. > :01:45.former prisoner of conscience turned President of the nation. Now,
:01:45. > :01:51.balance between the country's Islamist and secular political
:01:51. > :01:59.movements. secular and all are Muslims and
:01:59. > :02:02.is try is say, Look, we are a complex
:02:02. > :02:06.society and we have to accept that some are secular and some are
:02:06. > :02:12.Muslims and we have to work together. Everybody talks about
:02:12. > :02:18.working together but when the prime minister, for example, told
:02:18. > :02:24.supporters after his victory "we are in the 6th Caliphate, God
:02:24. > :02:31.willing", how do you as receptionist to feel? I think that
:02:31. > :02:35.was a mistake. Of course I am in favour of a modern, secularist
:02:35. > :02:39.state. I do not accept and will never accept the kind of Islamist
:02:39. > :02:46.state in this country. The hope was that what happened here would
:02:46. > :02:52.spread. Yes. There would be a positive contagion. And that...
:02:52. > :02:58.That has not happened and this is very frustrating, yes. I would like
:02:58. > :03:06.so much for all of the Arab revolutions to have been like ours.
:03:06. > :03:16.Egyptians surprised the world when country and in 18 days overthrew
:03:16. > :03:26.the tyrant that many people thought some had
:03:26. > :03:27.
:03:27. > :03:35.some painful, as you say, transformed completely when we have
:03:35. > :03:43.now the first civilian - for the history - a civilian president who
:03:43. > :03:48.way. We now have an accountable government that is in charge of
:03:48. > :03:53.business. Y business. Yentioned the election of President Morsi. Of
:03:53. > :03:57.course, it was a historic landmark for this country. At the time of
:03:57. > :04:01.his election, he made promises, some of which he said he could
:04:01. > :04:06.deliver in 100 days, on the economy, security, everything including
:04:06. > :04:12.garbage collection. The truth is, if you look at that raft of
:04:12. > :04:16.promises, most have not been met. It depends on how you define them,
:04:16. > :04:26.of course. If you believe one can solve the problems that have
:04:26. > :04:26.
:04:26. > :04:31.days, and do not think that is the right thing to do. But you did what
:04:31. > :04:35.to promise to make significant change. -- but he did promise to
:04:35. > :04:40.make significant change. This year, we took HARDtalk on the road to one
:04:40. > :04:50.of the most under-reported and troubled corners of the Arab world,
:04:50. > :04:54.prompted apprehension from Saudi Arabia to the United States. We
:04:54. > :05:04.tried to reach the territory being held by jihadi militants loyal to
:05:04. > :05:14.
:05:14. > :05:20.Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. However, we gathered footage that
:05:20. > :05:28.showed the militants gaining ground. Al-Qaeda sy Al-Qaeda sying
:05:28. > :05:36.advantage of a political vacuum. That put increased influence in the
:05:36. > :05:42.hands of local tribal leaders with their own complex agendas.
:05:42. > :05:45.This man is a tribal leader with family ties to Al-Qaeda at
:05:45. > :05:49.insurgence and close contact with the government. He and his
:05:49. > :05:55.entourage have in recent months been involved in efforts to
:05:55. > :06:03.negotiate an end to the conflict. In your heart, do you believe there
:06:03. > :06:08.can be peace, real peace and freedom, in this country as long as
:06:08. > :06:18.Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda fighters, militants inside
:06:18. > :06:53.
:06:53. > :06:56.What we want on HARDtalk our exclusive interviews, scoops, and
:06:57. > :07:03.this is where the HARDtalk team practises the arts of persuasion.
:07:03. > :07:08.One case in point came this year as the war in Syria intensified. We
:07:08. > :07:13.persuaded the most senior defector from the Assad regime to give us
:07:13. > :07:23.his first major interview - but not in London, in the Jordanian capital
:07:23. > :07:40.
:07:40. > :07:45.There are Syrians in the opposition who are deeply cynical about your
:07:45. > :07:51.person person says that when you arrived
:07:51. > :07:56.in Jordan after August's six, she wrote, the rats are leaving the
:07:56. > :08:02.sinking ship. She implies clearly that you and the left to save your
:08:02. > :08:12.skin because you believe the regime could no longer guarantee its own
:08:12. > :08:49.
:08:49. > :08:52.In 2012, Israel watched as newsrooms around the world reported
:08:52. > :08:57.on the crumbling of the old order across the Arab world. But in
:08:57. > :09:01.Israel, the focus remained firmly on Iran as the government of
:09:01. > :09:11.Binyamin Netanyahu conceded military action to swart Iran's
:09:11. > :09:12.
:09:12. > :09:19.nuclear ambitions. -- considered military action to stop Iran's
:09:19. > :09:24.nuclear ambitions. We spoke with one intelligence insider. We must
:09:24. > :09:30.work to stop Iran from reaching nuclear capability. That is in the
:09:30. > :09:34.vital interests of everyone, the re
:09:34. > :09:38.the only country in the world which is really threatened by another
:09:38. > :09:44.state which we do not even have a common border with. They want to
:09:44. > :09:52.see us disappear from the Planet. If you believe in the flat, why
:09:52. > :09:59.word like stupid? A negative word that you use when you talked about
:09:59. > :10:06.the idea of an immediate Israeli strike? This will not serve Israeli
:10:06. > :10:15.purposes. Why? First of all, we cannot stop the project by an
:10:15. > :10:22.attack. Tha attack. Thanly delay a project. Second, that will create a
:10:22. > :10:26.situation which would rally the leadership
:10:26. > :10:32.leadership even though they are in an economic and political crisis. -
:10:32. > :10:42.- that would rally Iran's public. That would provide them with the
:10:42. > :10:43.
:10:43. > :10:49.a nuclear military project. Four now, they tell the public they are
:10:49. > :10:55.doing this for peaceful purposes. As we welcome President Obama...
:10:55. > :11:02.And Governor Romney. The 2012 US presidential election
:11:02. > :11:08.promised to be a cliffhanger but it challenger, won the first head-to-
:11:08. > :11:12.head debate with President Obama but he could not build on that
:11:12. > :11:18.momentum. The President's advantage among minorities, women, young
:11:18. > :11:23.people, saw him win with something to spare.
:11:23. > :11:30.Underpinning the election was a basic question - how to fix the
:11:30. > :11:36.ailing US economy? For answers, I turned to one of the most
:11:36. > :11:42.influential voices on Wall Street, former Fede former Fedeve chief Paul
:11:42. > :11:46.Faulkner. The critical time will come after the election. Can we
:11:46. > :11:50.then frame a response to the challenge that is effective and
:11:50. > :11:55.timely? I have to believe that is what we will try to do and what we
:11:55. > :12:01.can do. Not long ago, you said, looking at this fundamental problem
:12:01. > :12:07.that the US has with its budget and its debt, you said "if, at the end
:12:07. > :12:12.of the day, we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes." however,
:12:12. > :12:16.that runs against the grain of what so many Americans believe at the
:12:16. > :12:21.moment. No money and -- nobody understands that more than I do but
:12:21. > :12:28.if we have to do it, we should do it. The great challenge will be to
:12:28. > :12:36.combine the budgetary programme and deal with the Budget consistently
:12:36. > :12:41.The present tax system is on the verge of breaking down. The system
:12:41. > :12:47.has to be changed. Do you think that whoever leads America after
:12:47. > :12:53.the next presidential election will have to abandon efforts to finesse
:12:53. > :13:01.some sort of middle of the ground together and lead on this issue in
:13:01. > :13:06.a way that maybe the President has shied away from. Maybe he has, but
:13:06. > :13:11.I think this is his opportunity. I will be disappointed if he is
:13:11. > :13:16.elected and he does not take a more comprehensive, effective, forceful
:13:16. > :13:20.course of action. If he is elected, that is the signal that he has the
:13:20. > :13:25.opportunity to do it. This is where the director and the
:13:25. > :13:30.team over CD recording of HARDtalk. This year, one of the recurring
:13:30. > :13:35.subjects for the programme has been the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
:13:35. > :13:40.It has been a story of bail outs, budget cuts budget cuts protests
:13:40. > :13:47.across Europe and the Continent's politicians and bankers desperately
:13:47. > :13:51.trying to find a solution. I think there has been a big
:13:51. > :13:55.element of solidarity between the countries and also a certain
:13:55. > :13:59.robustness. We have been able to take decisions even though it has
:13:59. > :14:02.been a very difficult situation. notice that to focus on the taking
:14:02. > :14:07.of decisions. It seems to me that what we have learned over the
:14:07. > :14:15.course of this crisis over the last few years is that it is impossible
:14:15. > :14:23.to come together and take drugs -- difficult decisions. I would not
:14:23. > :14:30.say that. In terms of European for the euro countries and their
:14:30. > :14:34.ability to take hard decisions. We had a financial crisis that hit the
:14:34. > :14:41.world very hard. First, it hit the US... With respect, let us stick
:14:41. > :14:47.hit us all very hard. Then we had a certain element where the economy
:14:47. > :14:52.was not in order. The economies of the male -- member states were not
:14:52. > :14:56.in order and that is why we have these difficulties. It is not the
:14:56. > :15:00.fault of the euro that they had problems in Greece. That is their
:15:00. > :15:08.own responsibility and I believe we must have the eurozone countries
:15:08. > :15:18.and the EU member states -- I think it the eurozone countries and the
:15:18. > :15:25.
:15:25. > :15:30.Another big theme for us in 2012 has been the transformation of
:15:30. > :15:38.Africa into the world's fastest growing economic region. Uganda is
:15:38. > :15:45.seen dynamic economic change. Not so in politics. President Museveni
:15:45. > :15:55.has been in power for 27 years and term limits do not apply. This is
:15:55. > :15:58.
:15:58. > :16:07.not real not realmatter. I do not think we are concentrating
:16:07. > :16:17.on the substance. Leaders in Africa awful long time, off the top of my
:16:17. > :16:25.
:16:25. > :16:35.Robert Mugabe, Teodoro Obiang, Biya, is this company you apparat ticket?
:16:35. > :16:36.
:16:36. > :16:46.I keep the company of elected leaders. -- you are proud to keep.
:16:46. > :16:53.
:16:53. > :17:03.More importantly, you should ask me, of leaders? Is it programmes? You
:17:03. > :17:04.
:17:04. > :17:14.issue that has crippled Africa has been which way to go, which formula
:17:14. > :17:17.
:17:17. > :17:22.not who, but what. Late in 2012 I took HARDtalk on the road to
:17:22. > :17:28.Equatorial Guinea. This tiny West African nation has vast oil wealth,
:17:28. > :17:33.during the long rule of Teodoro Obiang, it has been dubbed one of
:17:33. > :17:38.the most corrupt and unequal nations on earth. There is a very
:17:38. > :17:43.state the state and the family. You are the
:17:43. > :17:48.President. We are talking about your son, who is now the vice-
:17:48. > :17:51.president. We are talking about a government that includes your other
:17:51. > :17:58.son, Minister of Energy, we are talking about a government that
:17:58. > :18:08.includes your brother, Minister of Defence. It looks as though you run
:18:08. > :18:38.
:18:38. > :18:43.2012 provided a timely reminder that political change can come to
:18:43. > :18:51.even the most repressive and entrenched regimes. Burma has been
:18:51. > :18:55.part of five decades, until last year. The country has embarked on a
:18:55. > :19:00.process of political reform that has seen Aung San Suu Kyi entered
:19:01. > :19:06.Parliament in the run-up to elections in 2015. Supervising the
:19:06. > :19:10.currend current president Thein Sein, who
:19:10. > :19:17.gave an exclusive interview to HARDtalk. Are you prepared to say
:19:17. > :19:22.that you, personally, believe it is not least to allow Aung San Suu Kyi
:19:22. > :19:32.the possibility of becoming president if she is elected by the
:19:32. > :19:47.
:19:48. > :19:53.You did choose to praise Aung San Suu Kyi at the United Nations and
:19:53. > :20:03.other Torksey have given in America. You praised her efforts for
:20:03. > :20:09.
:20:09. > :20:19.make a good leader of your country? Would you work with her if she was
:20:19. > :20:35.
:20:36. > :20:40.Many of the best feel good moments of 2012 were generated here in
:20:40. > :20:44.London by the Olympic Games. The cynics were silenced as London put
:20:44. > :20:50.on a fabulous show and athletes from all over the world excelled
:20:50. > :20:57.without the help of illegal drugs. On HARDtalk we got a rare insight
:20:57. > :21:02.into the pressure and pain to be found in sp found in spThorpe, gold-
:21:02. > :21:10.medallist and Australia's greatest ever Olympian, looked back on a
:21:10. > :21:14.career blighted by depression. would have dealt with depression, I
:21:14. > :21:20.believe it is something you're born with. I would have had to deal with
:21:20. > :21:24.it regardless of doing all these things in sport. I look at the
:21:24. > :21:28.think think there is an elevated level
:21:28. > :21:32.compared to the rest of the population. That is going to
:21:32. > :21:38.surprise a surprise a ople. When you look at athletes, the last thing
:21:38. > :21:46.they appear to be his final report. I completely agree. It is seeing
:21:46. > :21:53.that performance, people see a tiny sliver of what an athlete do. They
:21:53. > :21:59.do not look so vulnerable, it is the same before a race, I walk out
:21:59. > :22:06.with all the confidence in the world. It i world. It i It is a mask.
:22:06. > :22:12.You put the mask on to protect something that you think is ideal
:22:12. > :22:17.for that situation. We all do it. If someone is going for a job
:22:17. > :22:23.interview, you show the best side of yourself. You do not tell them
:22:23. > :22:29.you are going to be looking at Facebook all day. In sport, it is
:22:29. > :22:34.part of the show. Before we close, I want to go back to the beginning
:22:34. > :22:40.of 2012. An encounter that was not just stimulating for the mind, but
:22:40. > :22:46.for the taste buds as well. I went to Copenhagen. This restaurant has
:22:46. > :22:53.been hailed as the best in the world. Rene Redzepi has pioneered a
:22:53. > :23:03.cuisine based on locally foraged for food. Including ants, seaweed
:23:03. > :23:05.
:23:05. > :23:15.and moss. He calls it the science push not only urine innovative
:23:15. > :23:16.
:23:16. > :23:26.diners into new areas? It can be pushed into wherever the
:23:26. > :23:28.
:23:28. > :23:34.deliciousness his. You say that, plate of live ants, some people are
:23:34. > :23:41.going to say, I am not going to eat that. They will for a little while.
:23:41. > :23:45.When we opened seven years ago, when we started serving Moss, it
:23:46. > :23:55.could have been crocodile. Some strange animal. It was so strange
:23:55. > :24:02.for people. Just the fact to serve a wild grass. People were of
:24:02. > :24:07.getting to it originally. These things do not take long. Putting an
:24:07. > :24:16.ant in your mouth is no different to shrink. It is not. It is a
:24:16. > :24:23.cultural thing. -- shrimp. Hard... In 2012 gave me and I hope you
:24:23. > :24:27.plenty to chew on. We will be back in 2013 for more challenging
:24:27. > :24:31.interviews from right around the world. Until then, have a very
:24:31. > :24:41.happy New Year. I will leave you with pictures from a recent