Iran Refuses To Cede Control Of The Strait Of Hormuz Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris Jul 10, 2026
On July 9, millions of Iranians gathered in the holy city of Mashhad to bid a final farewell to their martyred Supreme Leader.
Dimitri Lascaris was there to report on the final burial of Imam Ali Khamenei.
In this report, Dimitri shares footage from the last day of the seven-day funeral and analyzes the violence that erupted this week in the all-important Strait of Hormuz.
Transcript
Good day. This is Demetri Lceras coming to you from Mashad, Iran on July 10th, 2026 for Reason to Resist. Yesterday was the final day for the funeral of Iran's martyed Supreme Leader Ali Kamei. A little later in this report, I'll share you the stunning footage of this remarkable final day. I've been in Iran for the entire period of the 7-day funeral. And like all other days I have been here, yesterday's proceedings drew huge masses of people who expressed their grief, indignation, and defiance at the United States and Israel. But before I share with you footage of yesterday's events, I want to talk to you about the ongoing US war of aggression against this country. This week, after Iran targeted non-compliant commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz using non-lethal force, the US bombed Iranian ports and bridges. In so doing, US forces killed more than a dozen martyrs. The aggressor murdered at least three people in Iran's southwestern Kujastan province, a firefighter in an airport in the southeastern city of Iranchar, and nine members of the Iranian military. Iranian state media also reported explosions in several cities, including Busher, which houses Iran's nuclear power plant complex. And apparently, although those air strikes did not hit the nuclear plant, they did strike nearby. Iran's military has responded with dozens of strikes on US military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Jordan. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it carried out attacks on quote key infrastructure and facilities close quote at bases used by the criminal US military in Aries Jan and Ali al-Salum in Kuwait, Ju and Shik Issa in Bahrain uh and also I believe Alu Daid in Qatar. Most importantly perhaps, Iran fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan's Azarak military base. According to the IRGC in a statement carried by state media yesterday, Jordan's armed forces said it had intercepted eight Iranian missiles in the airspace after sirens sounded across the country, adding that falling shrapnel did not cause any casualties or material damage. So assuming that Iran did in fact fire 10 ballistic missiles, that would mean that Jordan intercepted 80% of them. Well, I find that rather difficult to believe. And I'll tell you why. because uh former MIT professor Ted Postol who is one of the leading weapons experts in the west uh and was an adviser to the Pentagon has done some uh very interesting uh interviews uh about this subject about the ability of US air defense systems to intercept ballistic 3 minutesmissiles. uh he did a recent interview in particular on the Daniel Davis program. I think it was about three weeks ago in which he explained why he has concluded that the Patriot milit uh air air defense system which is essentially the best air defense system that the United States has and provides to its Arab vessels uh only intercepts about 2 to 3% of ballistic missiles. It may be quite good when it comes to dealing with slowmoving drones or subsonic uh cruise missiles. Perhaps even uh non-hypersonic uh missiles uh although uh possessing uh supersonic speeds uh perhaps they can take out a significant proportion of those. But uh missiles that travel at hypersonic speeds which is the velocities that these ballistic m missiles reach when they uh enter the atmosphere and hurdle towards the earth. According to the postal 2 to 3% is probably the uh interception rate. So even if they had taken out one of these 10 missiles they would have been lucky to do that. that would have been an interception rate of 10% uh for you know four to five times uh above the average interception rate according to the conclusions of professor postal and we also know by the way that although fantastical claims were made throughout the Ramadan war about the uh proportion of Iranian ballistic missiles that were being intercepted by the Gulf Arabitocracies uh that house these US military bases. We know from the corporate media in the United States and satellite imagery that in fact there was enormous damage done to numer numerous of these bases rendering uh in excess of 10 of them according to the western corporate media inoperable. So if these air defense systems are nearly as successful as is claimed uh by countries like Jordan uh then uh you would not expect to see that level of damage in uh US military bases in this region. Now, the IRGC says that in Jordan, it targeted a US command and control facility. 10 ballistic missiles can do a hell of a lot of damage to a facility of that nature. For the time being, we can't say here on Reason to Resist, how much damage was done, but with time, we may well find out, particularly as satellite imagery emerges. And if we do find out, we'll certainly share that information with you. Now, in its newsletter this morning, the New York Times published a commentary by New York Times staff writer Kathine Benhold. Her commentary concerned the debate in Iran before those who want negotiations with the US to continue and those who want them to end. As is customary in the corporate media, Benho describes those who want negotiations to end as hardliners. and she claims that the hardliners in Iran constitute a minority, albeit a powerful one. She also says that the hardliners quote prefer war close quote. Benhold writes that the hardliners used the occasion of the Supreme Leader funeral this past week to physically attack government officials who have been defending the ceasefire with the United States. On Monday, she says, uh, there was a particularly notable incident when, according to her, a crowd tried to tackle President Masoud Pajeskian during a funeral procession while shouting, quote, "Death to the appeaser." Close quote. And Benhold says, quote, "He swayed, looking dazed as security detail guided him away." She goes on and writes, "Foreign Minister Abasaraki was struck with a rock as he was chased down an alley during the funeral. The attackers waving flags cursed him and called for his death. Close quote. Now, I've not seen footage of these incidents and cannot confirm whether these events actually occurred, but if they did occur, I wouldn't be surprised. Not based on what I've seen and heard in the streets of Tan and Mashad all week. Uh, that being said, I take strong issue with several aspects of Benhold's article. First of all, if it is in fact true that I rate Iranian citizens uh threatened the president and the foreign minister in that way uh and I'm not suggesting that they were going to lynch them or anything like that. I have no reason to believe that they intended to carry out any kind of a death threat or even cause them grievous bodily injury. But just taking at face value what she said they did. If in fact they did that, it seems a little difficult to recognize uh to I'm sorry reconcile with the narrative that uh the Iranian government is a brutally oppressive regime uh that is effectively dictatorial. Would people behave this way in a country, ordinary citizens towards the president and the foreign minister, especially during an important a critically important state event, uh if uh they were liable to be carted off to prison and tortured or worse uh for offending the dignity of the president and the foreign minister in that manner. And Ben Hull doesn't uh seem to grasp that there is an inconsistency between what she recounts happened this week and uh the New York Times standard editorial line that the Iranian government is one of the most repressive and dictatorial regimes on earth. Uh but there are other aspects of this with which I take greater exception. First of all, her use of the term hardliners. You know, you aren't a hardliner because you believe that uh there is nothing to be gained by negotiating with that psychopath, pathologically lying, narcissistic, megalomaniac uh and genocidal Donald Trump. Uh that's just common sense. Why would anyone thinking rationally looking at the way Donald Trump has behaved um believe that those uh negotiations are going to result in an agreement that Donald Trump uh will respect and that will be uh in the interests of the Iranian people and the Iranian state. That's simply an irrational belief. So, I, you know, I think a far more accurate term of the so-called hardliners is realists or I would call them pragmatists. They're being practical. They're being realistic. They're looking at Donald Trump's behavior and they're saying this is a pointless exercise and if we do any kind of a deal, he's going to use it to somehow disadvantage us even further than he's already done. Uh, but she characterizes them as hardliners, which uh, you know, obviously carries a negative connotation. It suggests that these people are extremists, that they're inflexible, uh that they can't be reasoned with when the reality is that they're being all too reasonable. They see the reality of what Donald Trump is. Uh and they are um you know, uh urging upon their government a policy which takes into account that reality, namely that negotiations with this monster are a fool's errand and likely only to rel lead to further disadvantages for the nation of Iran and its people. Now she goes on and she says that the hardliners constitute a so-called hardliners constitute a minority. Uh a claim for which she provides zero evidence. you you that's a pretty important claim to be making at this point in time uh when the negotiations between the United States and uh Iran have broken down and this is a war that has potentially profound consequences for uh the global economy and the US economy included. Um, so I would say that it's journalistically incumbent upon her to provide some kind of evidence, something to back up the claim that these so-called hardliners constitute a minority. Now, I don't have polling evidence to provide to you, and if I knew of any, I would I would cite it to you whether or not it is consistent with my own experience, but I can tell you what my own experience is for what it's worth. and uh you know it is not anywhere close to uh you know it doesn't have anywhere close to the evidentiary value of scientifically uh valid polls uh but nonetheless it's something and I can tell you that going through the streets of Iran and interacting with people I saw enormous amounts of hostility towards uh the negotiation process and immense skepticism. I heard this over and over again. I saw uh quite literally I mean when I add up all the people I saw uh chanting against negotiations and carrying uh banners opposed to negotiations, it's probably in the tens of thousands and that's just what I saw in the streets. Uh so uh I uh really question whether these people constitute a a minority. I think it's entirely possible that a majority of Iranians think that it is uh it is contrary to the interest of the Iranian state to be negotiating with this uh menacious psychopath. Uh, and as I say, that's simply logical. And my sense is that most Iranians have common sense and they are rational people fundamentally. And if that is the case and they're paying attention, as I'm sure they are, to Donald Trump's current behavior and his record, uh, the majority would be of the view uh, that these negotiations should be uh, brought to an end forth with and perhaps that they should never have uh, begun with uh, or been undertaken to begin with. The third claim with which I want to take exception in this Benhold uh piece of toilet paper is the claim that the so-called hardliners prefer war. You know, I haven't met a single person in Iran of the many people I've met during my uh three trips uh to this country across this country during the past 14 months who actually wants war. Not a single one. Such people may exist, but if they were here in significant number and if the so-called hardliners with whom I've had extensive interaction preferred war, then presumably I would have met at least a few of them by now. But I've met none of them. What the pal what the Iranian people want, let's be very clear about this, Miss Benhold, they want the war to be brought to an end as expeditiously as possible, but they want it to be ended permanently. I repeat, permanently. They don't want to be turned into Lebanon or Syria or Libya that is in a constant state of vulnerability, a constant state of war, a war which simply varies from time to time in intensity, but which is never ending and permanently infeebles the state. That's what they don't want. and they understand perfectly well that after having kicked the asses of the Americans and the Israelis in the most recent war and in the June war of last year, the uh Israelis and the Americans are opting for plan B. And plan B is this low inensity intermittent war which doesn't cause catastrophic damage all at once but which over time gradually weakens the state and the nation to the point that they can no longer defend defend themselves and there's a breakdown of a civil order and civilized life. Uh that is what the Americans and the Israelis have in store through this negotiating process uh which is a complete fraud as is now clear as clear as day and the Iranian people understand this perfectly well. So they don't think that this course of action, the one being pursued, not all Iranians, but in my view probably a majority of them don't think that the course of action that has been pursued thus far uh by the government is likely to lead to a permanent end in the war. What will lead to a permanent end to the war? In my view, it is exactly what I've been saying for months. My view has been strengthened over time by uh the kinds of things we have witnessed this week. the relentless violations of theou uh and various other ceasefire agreements by the United States and Israel. What has to happen is that the Iran has to inflict such a penalty on the United States. Israel is really secondary in all of this because if the United States wants the war to be ended permanently, it'll be ended permanently whether or not Israel wants that. So, it has to really inflict upon the United States a penalty that is so severe that the next time it's tempted to attack Iran, it will decide not to do that because the pain of doing so will simply be too great. And how can Iran inflict a penalty of that nature? By shutting down the straight of Hormuz. You know, we just uh did a press conference with the uh Iranian parliament parliamentarian Ibraham Izzi who is the chair of the parliament's national security commission. We published that this morning and uh we were allowed to ask him questions any questions we wanted. there were no restrictions placed upon our questions and a lot of people uh in that room foreign journalists yourself uh your yours truly included expressed skepticism about the wisdom of pursuing these negotiations any further and uh one question which I asked it's at the very beginning of the uh uh the video we published this morning or near the beginning was in light of the uh many violations of theou uh by uh the Trump regime uh and in particular the fact that it has now reimposed sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil. Uh what are the benefits to Iran of continuing to comply with theou and isn't it in fact uh the more logical approach to close the straight of Hormuz again uh to impose maximum pressure on the United States economy and through it the government of the United States. Uh and I commend to you if you want to see the answer that I got back from Mr. Aizi that you watch this. Another person also asked in this same video that we've published whether uh the United States uh I'm sorry, Iran entered into theou too early because it was on the cusp of causing serious harm to the United States economy just as the United States by the way has been doing to the Iranian economy for decades. Uh and so again uh the answer to that question may interest you and if you want to hear what Mr. Zezy had to say. I recommend that you watch uh the video of the press conference which we published this morning. But in any case, uh the point here is uh I don't believe and I suspect that a great many Iranians don't believe that the Iranian government has so far gone far enough to establish real deterrence. That's what they want. They want real deterrence so that the war is brought to a permanent end and uh they're not uh indefinitely subjected uh to the suffering the interminable suffering of an inter intermittent low inensity war. Uh so that again Miss Benhold uh if you happen to be listening uh to uh my comments today that's what the Adanian people want. uh your racist notion that there are some wildeyed savages who love war or that any segment of the Iranian society is like that really uh is a disgrace. Uh like all human beings, they desire peace overwhelmingly. And if there are any people in this country uh who actually do prefer war, I assure you that they are a tiny minority. Now, um I want to uh close out uh with a couple of other points uh about uh what has happened over the last couple of days. Uh we will be heading back to uh Thran uh later this evening uh by train. It's a 12-h hour train ride. Uh we got here by train uh about 3 days ago. Our um uh voyage back to Thran was complicated by the fact that the uh the Trump regime bombed bridges uh railway bridges connecting Thran uh to Mashad and in fact we passed over one of these bridges on our way here. Uh now we were therefore uncertain whether we were going to be able to take the train back to Thran and I do need to go back for one day before uh leaving the country and returning to Canada. Um but uh we are told that uh the government seems to have found a solution quickly dealing with the problem created by uh the bombing of this civilian infrastructure. By the way, this railroad is very important. It's strategically important to Iran because it connects uh Iran, I understand, to China uh and also to Russia. So, uh that will tell you something about uh the motivation of the United States for bombing this civilian infrastructure. Um and of course, there's the additional motivation it may have had uh that people were traveling from the capital to Mashad for the final day of the Supreme Leader's uh funeral. uh but I suspect the uh main motivation was to impede uh economic relations between uh the Islamic Republic of Iran and its uh its partners uh China and Russia. Now uh in the days ahead I guess we'll find out uh whether uh the Iranian government has gotten the message which I think a great many of its citizens tried to convey during the uh past week uh as to the way they feel about negotiations with the uh sociopath in the White House. Uh with that uh let's turn to the footage of the final day of the Supreme Leader's funeral which took place yesterday. Uh I'll just mention briefly uh you'll see as uh this uh report on the ground report yesterday unfolds that we had expected that the coffin of the the coffins of the martyrs would be uh brought down one of the main boulevards leading to the uh Imam Breza shrine where the martyr Ali Kamei was finally laid to rest last night. But in fact uh they were not brought down to the main bullet through the main boulevards and uh we were not able to view at the end of the day uh the uh the the delivery of the coffins to the shrine. Uh we learned that they had arrived uh by video feed on Iranian state media. Uh but you will see uh in the video I'm about to show you the extraordinary uh and uh impressive uh gathering of masses of people uh both inside and around the ImmA shrine as they waited uh for uh the arrival of the body of their beloved and martyed leader. And at the very end of this uh clip that I'm about to show you from last night's uh events, you will hear uh a gigantic throng of mourners chanting in unison. And the words that they chanted uh were quite powerful. They were all these armies have come for the love of their leader. This is Dimmitri Lceris coming to you on July 9th, 2026 from Mashad, Iran. This is the site of the last day of the 7-day program for the funeral of the martyed supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khani. We have been here in the country every step of the way in the streets uh at the mosques where mourers gathered to uh pay their respects and to grieve and also to express their indignation. And all of it will culminate in a few hours time at the Imam Bza shrine uh which is uh directly in front of me in a distance of a couple hundred meters. But for the time being, I want to show you what is behind me. That is the Imm Resa Boulevard. And as you can see, it is absolutely jam-packed with mourners as far as the eye can see. And uh the coffin of the supreme leader along with the coffins of his slain family members, his martyed family members are we understand somewhere down that absolutely jam-packed boulevard. Uh and they should have arrived by now at the shrine. uh but because of the great mass of people who have assembled there waiting for the coffins to arrive uh their arrival has been much delayed and we are going to share with you uh in a few moments footage of what uh I just saw and experienced down in the streets uh both on Imamza Boulevard and on our way from our hotel which is uh near the main entrance to this gigantic shrine complex. Uh, but I'm going to sharp I'm going to start by showing you uh what I can see right now looking in front of me uh at the shrine. I'm going to go Are you going to stay here? Hallelujah. Jesus. Heat. Heat. So, we've now left that uh very tall hotel where we had this magnificent view of Imam Resza Boulevard and the Imam Resza Shrine. And we're back down in the streets below. We uh have learned that in fact the coffin burying the body of the supreme leader is not going to uh be delivered via Imam Resa Boulevard uh but rather another uh avenue that passes directly in front of the hotel we're staying which is a uh smaller hotel an eighth floor hotel and uh that news by the way is has been spread publicly so uh you You can see that uh there are a lot of people walking in the direction of our hotel which is about a couple hundred meters away. Uh and we plan to go onto the rooftop of our hotel so that we can see the uh coffin of the martyed supreme leader uh go by uh as uh it enters the shrine complex. More water to keep us cool. foreign speech. That's Industry man omnico mico Many manufacturing. I didn't know you have any work. Nothing. You're going to We are going to the I cannot tell All your nice hair draws up spaghetti. I love it. Long time. We've now returned to our hotel and are still waiting for the coffin of the martyrd supreme leader and those of his slain family members to enter the shrine and we expect that's going to happen shortly.
US Strikes BACKFIRE as 43 MILLION Iranians Declare War | Larry Johnson & Ray McGovern Danny Haiphong Streamed live 3 hours ago #iran #iranwar #trump
Former CIA Analysts Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern discuss day three of renewed war as Iran an attack on the funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Kuwait & Bahrain attempt strikes on Iran with US support.
Transcript
Welcome back to the show everyone. As you can see, I'm joined by Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern returning back to the show. First, let's get to the news. So, uh, yesterday was the final day of the funeral for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamei and his family uh, in Mashad, Iran. During this time, there was a reported terror incident that occurred. A few Iranians were killed I believe from the security forces uh but no further attacks came and there was nothing that came of it at the funeral itself. But what did happen at the funeral is that 43 million Iranians ended up attending what was 6 days of ceremony with uh many noting that and of course Israel making up stories about uh Iran wanting to assassinate Trump. But there were chants of we are the followers of Imam Hami and we seek revenge. Now uh gentlemen Donald Trump today said after two days of strikes that now Iran is the one begging him to come to the table and talk and that the United States has agreed to do so but that the ceasefire is over. Iran has denied these claims entirely, saying they're just not true and there will be no talks until commitments are fulfilled. Uh Larry, we're heading into the weekend. There are destroyers uh there's aircraft carrier carriers lining up getting closer to Iranian shores. Threats of a renewed blockade. What do you make of of what's happened over the last , especially the last 24 as uh uh the United States said they chose diplomacy over strikes again? United States said it chose diplomacy over strikes. That's what it said. That's what it said that they are talking to the Qatar mediators that they're the the mediators in the background, but the ceasefire is over says Trump. [snorts] Yeah, the a little little bit of a contradiction in there. Uh look, this was th this was all a staged uh provocation by the United States uh when it started let's see we're Friday. So it started on Tuesday when they put tried to put the four ships, five ships through the straight of Hormuz without doing following the uh Persian Gulf straight authority guidelines pro protocols put out by Iran and according to theou the only country in the world in the universe is that's the obligation the responsibility uh to ensure safe passage passage of vessels through the strait is Iran. United States signed off on that and in in response or in tandem with the US acknowledging Iran's primacy in the straight of Hermuz, the Iranians issued those protocols and the protocols stipulated that any ship wanting to pass the straight of Hermuz must submit an they've got a website an online application uh stipulating name of captain, name of ship, ownership of ship, destination, of ship cargo on board ship and the crew and you know basically Iran is using this as a we'll call it a backdoor embargo. Anything o owned or associated with Israel in any shape form uh would be denied so as to shut Israel down. Everybody else though can come on through. Well, instead of uh going along with that uh protocol, the United States encouraged even the Saudis and Qataris, tell the Iranians to screw off. We're going to do it on our own. They went through and in in the protocols, it it states very clearly that ships that do not comply with the PGSA protocols will be denied passage and or subject to use of force. No surprise there. Iran did exactly what it said in the protocols. They didn't violate any law. They didn't violate any uh clause within theou. At no point in theou did the United States say Iran, you cannot determine who go gets to use the straight of authority. That's that's we will not accept that. No, didn't say that. They didn't say that if if you try to enforce your uh your control that we're going to attack you. Didn't say that. But in fact, the United States in violation of the first paragraph of the of theou attacked, launched combat operations against Iran. Iran's retaliated. Uh they so they had two rounds of this. Iran retaliated, then the US retaliated, then the Iranians retaliated to the US retaliation. Uh, and since then I haven't seen any additional evidence that the United States is going to escalate, fire back, because if they fire back, Iran's going to escalate. Um, they've already in that second round, Iran went from hitting bases in Kuwait and Bahrain to also going after bases at the US base at Aluded uh in in Qatar and the Jordanian base at Mwafik Alti. So, you know, we're I I do know that Pakistan with Qatar has been busy behind the scenes trying to salvage talks trying to get the Iranians and the United States back together in Islamabad. They they were trying to do it for tomorrow. That hasn't come off. Maybe by Monday. We'll see. I'm I personally I I think uh the Iranians would be advised walk away from this. It's done. The United States is not a reliable negotiating partner. Well, Rey, we had 43 million Iranians attend that the funeral of Ayat Allemeni and uh that is quite the number given the country is 90 million and it came as the United States was striking their country. But what do you make of these simultaneous developments and and what's been going on the last few days? Good question. Um, I'm amazed that uh when Trump was told about this pour out, he was amazed and he's quoted as saying, "I I thought they were all against the government. [laughter] My god, you know, I mean, I wish that were funny." Anyhow, if Mossad told Trump a couple months ago that there was going to be a public insurrection in Iran because the people hated their government, well, I mean, they may have hated, some of them may have hat, but they hate it now. Uh, if that if that number is right, 43 million is a lot of people. Uh, Trump is lying again. uh when he says to the Iranians are really pressing him to re restart the negotiations. I mean uh fool me once, fool me twice, how many times has he said that and it's not been true. So like Larry, I don't think the Iran Iranians are going to do anything with respect to real negotiations until until the uh the hostilities really stop. Now, if I'm correct, then Trump has said, "Okay, we're going to stop now and then we're going to negotiate. I mean, there's what is there to negotiate?" The main point, in my view, is something that Larry has been harping on for two weeks now, and that is Well, it's not only Larry, it's his good friend Donald Trump. Right [laughter] now, wait a second. What What did I do to you? Huh? Well, no, no. I'm saying that after you pointed out, Donald Trump himself said, "We're running out of oil. My god, we're running out of oil. We got to get that straight open." That's why I agreed to the Mo. Yeah. [laughter] Well, and that's sort of complicated. I think I understand it from Larry's various explanations, but it is the case that the US desperately needs that so that they could get some Saudi and other crude in there to to to make the kind of jet fuel and uh the kind of stuff that powers trucks and iron and buses and stuff. So, if that's still the case, well, Trump has just tried a couple more escalations, but now he's going to talk. Now he's going to persuade the Iranians to open the straight. I don't think so. So, it's a real kind of corner he's backed himself into. And God knows what he's going to do. Trump probably doesn't even know either. Yeah. And uh Larry, I wanted to bring this up. Uh as there were a bit of a pause. I mean, there were some reports that Kuwait and Bahrain, I didn't see these verified, uh, supposedly tried to strike Iran with US intel support. Nonetheless, this was what came out yesterday that Israel has told the United States that uh, conveniently, Iran is seeking a fresh plot to assassinate Donald Trump. And this came as CNN was reporting a actively that the United States is trying to do a strike pause pattern, meaning that behind the scenes, the United States is trying to talk to the Iranians uh with US striking and then pausing to avoid escalation and let diplomacy work. This is according to uh CNN. Uh Larry, help us make sense of that. This appears to be a real troubling pattern where the United States escalates can't escalate further without massive damage, catastrophe, crisis, and then pretends or uh maybe I don't even know if they believe they're pretending to engage back into talks often citing that this is leverage. Uh what how do you uh help the audience understand this? Okay, there's several loose threads here and I'll see if I can weave them together to resemble something coherent. Number one, uh, now two weeks ago, Pete Hexth issued an order to start the withdrawal of US forces from the region. And in fact, that withdrawal is underway. It's slow. Uh, it's it's not a it's not a speedy withdrawal. It was described to me it's being done in waves, but we saw last week that the B-52s that were based in England, they returned uh to Konis or continental United States and that number of F15, I think it was 12 that were based in Jordan flew back to England, headed back to the United States. So that's you got that on the one hand. Also, u going back to June 17th, the United States military deactivated what are called cats. And I'm not talking about furry animals on four paws and a tail. Uh the CAT is a crisis action team. This is uh or it could also be called a task force. Um, and these are these are stood up in advance of military operations. The the attack that took place on the 28th of February by the United States was preceded 7 days earlier by the establishment of cats at the at the Pentagon in the na adjacent to the National Military Command Center at the operations center at Sentcom at McDell Air Force Base uh at JOC at their uh you know they've got a couple of different operation centers there and so these cats are involved with issuing orders responding to requests from field commanders, making sure that resources are in place, etc. Well, once you take those cats down, you lose that capability. Or in other words, the military is not on a combat footing. Uh, and they've been operating [clears throat] since about June 17th, uh, 8 to 5 Monday through Friday, banker hours. I specifically asked a couple of friends who still one one recently retired, one still active duty if the cats have been reestablished. No, across you know they they have not been reestablished. So that that right there limits what the United States is going to do. Uh I was also told that uh the strikes that have been carried out in the Persian Gulf are nothing compared to what we were doing in the first 40 days of the war with Iran. So even though the press is hyping it and it's getting, you know, sitcoms bragging about the, you know, destroying Iran, uh it's not as serious as it is be as is being presented. So you've got that on the one hand. On the other hand, uh Iran is not messing around. Every time they're hit, they respond and they escalate each response. At the same time, they're trying to keep it in check. Now, Iran is under a lot of pressure from Pakistan and China to get back to the negotiating table. But Iran's saying, "How the hell do we do that?" The United States has broken every single paragraph of theou. And until such time as they comply with theou, we're not going to go back with them. In fact, the Iran just issued a denial there. It was being leaked that there are upcoming talks with the US and and Iran in Switzerland and according to Fars and Iran said nope, not doing that. So I I think Iran's going to they're going to hold out for some uh concessions and in a way they have the United States over a barrel. And I don't I don't want to get too technical here, but the but the bottom line is oil is not oil. And the high sulfur oil is what the United States imports. United States does not produce enough high sulfur oil to uh the which is what 70% of our refineries need and that high sulfur oil is what is used to produce diesel and aviation fuel. So with the cut off that what took place the cut off on the 28th of February it didn't the full impact of that cut off did not become apparent to the United States or it wasn't being felt until April 11th uh roughly because it was 40 days uh that if you had a a full oil tanker that had just left the straight of Hormuz on the 28th of February would have taken them 40 days to get to Houston or to Louisiana. This is why Energy Secretary Miller on the 11th of March issued an order to start drawing down the strategic petroleum reserve at a rate of 1.4 million barrels per day. And what they were drawing down was the sour crude, not the sweet. Because United States makes we got all the sweet crude we want. The problem is the it's more for the oil industry and I know I'm I should tell Ray to sit down. I don't want to shock him but but the oil industry found it more profitable to have these expensive refineries that process sour crude. And so therefore they built more of those instead of the sweet crude which we have an abundance of now. You could actually produce diesel and and aviation fuel from sweet crude, but you have to have the right kinds of refineries. We don't have them. So, right now, the United States is facing that the the reserves that's drawing out of the SPR. It's going to run dry here. Some have said like tomorrow, July 11th. Some have said no, it'll be mid mid August. But this is what Donald Trump was talking about when he was said we're going to run out of oil in four weeks. So they need the US needs the straight of Hormuz open and it ain't at least as far as oil the the high sulfur oil coming to the United States. Yeah, and Larry, uh I mean uh those are great points, Rey. The uh you know uh the the reasoning for the strikes by the United States was all about the Straight War moves and was all about supposedly the tankers being hit and uh but the end result ended up being that fewer tankers were moving through the war actually zero from the so-called Omani corridor. What do you make of the United States's approach then uh in this uh restart? It's it's very interesting that CNN is now reporting that US officials are saying this is a uh uh strike pause strategy almost to uh negotiations. Did you say strategy? [laughter] Yeah. What does that mean? [clears throat] there has been no strategy. Uh in charge is a commanderin-chief and a president who's who's not really well. Uh we see that in all kinds of manifestations. Uh that's why not only the Iranians but the Russians and Chinese, everybody else tries to not provoke them. Uh now in this case the Iranians have all the cards. Um they will respond to provocations of a limited nature. Uh but they're not going to uh they're not going to do anything that will make sure that Trump goes off halfcocked. Now he's halfcocked already. Fullcocked I suppose is what I should say. Uh and then of course there is the Israel factor which cannot be overlooked in in a discussion like this. We have defense minister [clears throat] um Kats saying we're not we're not going to leave Lebanon. Uh that was number one. That was the first little clause of the uh memorandum of mis memorandum of understanding. All right. uh two sentences, one country mentioned three times in those two sentences, Lebanon. So, it's hard for Westerners to get through their Iranians care about other Muslims, other people who are occupied by Israel. Andu I would say it is it's sort of a miracle in our in our inability to to see that there is such a thing as principle or um sort of sort of a a kind of a look at things that doesn't center exclusively on one country. Uh but we have to start accepting that and the Israelis are the fly in the ointment. Did the Israelis tell Trump that he was on number one on the assassination list? Well, I don't know who else could have. Maybe Samoa. Of course, they told him. Did Trump believe it? I mean, he's saying, "Of course I'm number I'm not only number one on the Israeli on the Iran Iranian assassination lists. I'm [clears throat] number one on Tik Tok. Everybody knows that. I'm number one on Tik Tok. I'm number one on all kinds of things. How do you deal with a guy like that with kid gloves? But you have to show as the Iranians have done uh that you mean business and that you're not going to give up. 43 million. Well, if Trump was really surprised that he should not have been surprised. Getting back to strategy, there ain't no strategy. And you know, if you look at all the kinds of things that Trump has done there and in with respect to Ukraine, I mean, there are no weapons left for God's sake. No tomahawks, no Patriot missiles in Ukraine. Ukraine is defenseless from an air. No, I mean, was there planning on this? I don't know what the hell those generals do uh other than, you know, prepare for their next job with General Dynamics or or Boeing or whatever. But if they hadn't told Trump before, if they hadn't said, "Sir, we're going to run out of uh we're going to run out of weaponry in two weeks." He would have said probably, "Two [laughter] weeks? Mossad just told me on a tube that they'll be finished in days. we'll just decapitate uh the supreme leader and everybody will rise up. These people who would hate hate the supreme leader and oh it didn't turn out that way, did it? So all I'm saying here is my god no strategy and no predictability but the cards happen to be in Iran's hands and they have the support of Russia and China and increasingly other key countries in the world that it's going to go kind of gradually here to exploit their advantage. They're not going to go off halfcock unless they're really provoked into doing that. Yeah. And uh Larry, I wanted to ask you about about this. There was reports that Iran was uh amassing special forces units near the Iraqi Kurd uh border, Kurdistan border. Uh there has been of course military activities there for quite a long time throughout this war uh where Iran has been hitting these forces. uh some rumors that the US and Israel may be trying to activate them in some kind of invasion scheme, especially since the last time we spoke, I asked you about whether these attacks were some uh cockami scheme to uh uh to eventually take some kind of island. And then uh I'm wondering what you think the role then I know the United States has been looking for force for a long time uh ever since before the February 28th strikes to cause instability inside of Iran. Uh what do you make of these reports about the Iranian uh special forces uh amassing at the border against the Kurds? Yeah. No, I'm sure it's I'm sure it's accurate. United States is and Britain had been working, you know, CIA, MI6 have been working with the Kurds, promoting them and arming them, equipping them, training them to go in and conduct an operation inside Iran for the express purpose of, you know, destabilizing Iran. But the Iranians are aware of it and they and that's one of the reasons they've been bombing Kurdish positions and frankly the Kurds don't have enough forces to be able to penetrate and do do any kind of significant damage. So it's just you know it's a full Zaron as far as you know there there is no viable ground option for the United States. U if if we if we dane to figure you know number one how how are you going to get troops onto Car Island? It's not going to be through a US Navy landing craft um because that'll get blown out of the water before it even gets up that far north in in the Persian Gulf. So that means you have to drop them in by parachute or you drop them in uh you fly them in. Well, how many how many troops you going to put in there? You know, to secure Car Island, you'd probably need about 2,000. And given that a C130 can only take carry 90 uh soldiers with full combat loads ready to jump out of a plane, just do the math. Uh you're going to need over 22 23 C130s or you know or if they you know they come up with um you know a C141 which you know has more capacity but not a lot more. You're still dealing with a lot of airplanes and that's just what they jump in with. Then how do you resupply? And all all of this assumes that Iran's going to do nothing. They'll sit there and watch this. Won't they won't fire a drone. They won't fire a missile. Nonsense. And doing it right now in the summer. Uh you know, I've been there. I would look I haven't been there in July uh and and August or or or June, but I was there in May of 2026. And if the choice was going to gutter or hell, you'd prefer hell because their idea you might at least find a cool spot to be tortured in. Uh it was [laughter] I mean it was blistering. It's pizza oven hot out there. Well, when you get that kind of heat, uh you're going to get um you know people dehydrated. So, and how do you keep them resupplied? No, this is just this is madness. Absolute madness. But uh you you know before before we wrap up today I do want to comment on this so-called assassination plot against Trump because th this is all this has been staged jenned up uh by the CIA by DEA with the full collaboration of Department of Justice. Uh you know I'll come back and explain that but you know I want to give Ry a chance to comment. Yeah, Ray to you your comments. Well, uh I've just been thinking about um the Kurds and how they've always been the pawns of history. They want independence. They deserve independence. They were deprived of having independence a century ago or so. And uh the result is that any opportunity that presents itself that might have a chance of offering them independence, they seize on it. Uh it's not going to work. And Larry is quite right. Uh it makes good sense for the Iranians to put some troops up there near the Kurdish area just so they don't get any any uh any ideas. But the whole notion that Iran is going to give up is what what the Germans would call a vanzin. It's it's sort of a mild milder form of felt which you're not really allowed to say in Germany. Felix means crazy. I mean like really crazy like you your your your head is turned around 180° not 360° as an say but 180°. Okay. Now, Vansen is just complete foolishness. Okay. So, everybody's looking on at Trump and I would just read over it again that uh Trump not only has uh no predictability to him, but he's got a bunch of um sickopants uh who say, "Oh, well, we're worried about running out of ammunition, but oh, you saw you could rely on Mossad and the Israelis, and it's only going to be a little bit." What does the CIA say about that? Oh, there is no CIA here at the table. Uh, what about the National Intelligence D? Oh, no, she's fired. So, all right, let's go. Worth trying. So, it's really crazy. And the same thing obtains, of course, with respect to to to Ukraine. as though it's a rudderless kind of ship and uh the leaders of other countries Iran, Russia, China have to be quite aware that this ruleless ship could do a lot of damage if it's not contained, if it's not treated in a gingerly fashion. And so I come back to that notion that uh the US is losing. But since the person in charge is not reliable, is mercurial, changes his mind, you know, every day or maybe every hour, they got to be really careful. This this means a lot in the Ukraine situation. Yeah. Well, Larry, back to you about the uh where you wanted to continue. Well, yeah. So, this assassination plot, so let me take you back. I wrote about this uh back in November of 2024. And so Department of [clears throat] Justice put out this thing said, "Oh, Far Farhad Shakiri 51 of Iran. He tried to organize an assassination plot of Jews, but this was all tied into, you know, the attempted assassination of of Trump." Well, what we learned was Shakiri uh came to the United States as like an eight-year-old child. Uh then he got uh jammed up in a robbery charge. Did 14 years in prison in New York, made some friends while in prison, gets out and is deported. We don't know initially his place of deport, but next time he shows up, he's in Sri Lanka. And what's he doing in Sri Lanka? Well, he's trying to p move a load of heroin. And the Sri Lankan police arrest him. And then what happens next? He gets released. What you you know, did he pay off the police? No. What happened? DEA went in and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. They say, "Hey, Sha, here's here's the deal, buddy. you start working for Team America and you work with us and our our partners here, the CIA, and uh you'll be taken care of. Plus, you're not going to go you're not going to go to Jo to jail and get a boyfriend named Bubba. So, he said, "Hey, sounds like a great idea. I don't want to go back." So, next thing you know, he shows up in Iran and gets a job as an as an oil worker. you know, why does an Afghan go to Iran just, you know, because I guess better opportunities. Um, and then he says he claims that Iranian intelligence officers, uh, they get they get in touch with him and say, IRGC members, they want him to put together an assassination plot in the United States. So, what does he do? Uh well he calls he calls up two of his former salemates uh Carlile Rivera who is known as Pop 49year-old Brooklyn New Yorker and a guy named Jonathan Lo Halt 36 of Staten Island and basically recruits him hey we got this guy we want to get him killed and you know offer to pass money this is entirely a setup this was entirely to create a narrative and now Israel at a time when they need the United States to continue the war with Iran are trying to create the same narrative. Yeah. And I want to uh show you Ry Trump's response to this. I won't play the video, but he says he left instructions should Iran assassinate him that uh he said that he would uh bomb them uh to hell in a way that has never been seen before. That was the instructions he had left. That's the uh it it's you know it seems almost I I don't even know how what to how what word to put behind it in terms of why uh the United States would be talking like this now. But your thoughts? Well, it's kind of banal and purile. Um uh you know what are we going to do? Nukem? Well, I mean, I wish I could say that's ridiculous, but no one can say anything is ridiculous when you're talking about Trump. Um, and you know, that's why a lot of us are on tent hooks. I mean, it makes no sense, but it made no sense to attack Iran for God's sake. And if Trump were so easily persuaded to do that by the Israelis and their, as Joe Kent says, their acolytes in Washington, what might he be tempted or encouraged to do? Now, there's one other aspect that I'd like to raise just to learn a little bit from you all. I just saw a report that Mask, the uh big Danish uh transportation agency which runs all these great big boats, ships and stuff that they're going through the Suez Canal uh to deliver stuff through the Bob El Mand straight through the Red Sea up until I s I assume Israel or whatever. Okay, now that's the next challenge. What will the hooties who pretty much control the Bob Elman straight? What are they going to do? They say, "Oh, mask, please. You're Danish. Oh, Danish. Danish is we love Danish. So, come on in here." I don't think so. So, here's the next choke point, I think. Will will they be allowed in to resupply Israel and and others uh with desperately needed oil and other other goods? Um what do you think, Larry? Uh I that gives pause that would be one way that uh that this thing could flare up once again in a different spot, but just as powerfully. Well, yeah, Iran has already mentioned that uh if the United States continues attacks, it's next to options on its uh let's call it Chinese menu of responses includes having the Houthi shut down the Babel Mandab Strait and then also withdrawing from the NPT, the non-prololiferation treaty. But did I hear you right? This did they say the ship was going to go through the Panama Canal and then through No, they I'm sorry. If I said Panama, I meant Suez. Oh, the Suez. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh if they're coming through Suez to go through uh the Babel Mandab. Um Yeah. With with a What was their final destination? Do we know? Uh it was not not specified in what I saw report. It was just Yeah. So, so the um the the big concern would for the Saudis would be it I think the the port's called Yamboo that's on the Red Sea and the uh if if the Houthis decide to start attacking Yamboo and shutting that down then that again that shuts down a major source of oil coming out into the still trickling onto the world stage. I think some of that's been coming out of Saudi and making its way to Europe uh keeping you know sort of keeping them afloat. But u you know it is the Iranians made it very clear they're they are prepared to go all the way to get the straight of uh the Red Sea shut down close the Mandab Bob Mandab and also make sure that no ships go through the Suez Canal. Yeah. And uh there's also reports too that uh Iran's defense ministry has said that they are also going to uh let's not forget about Israel that Israel if these attacks continue that Israel will once again become a target of Iranian retaliation. Um I wanted to play actually uh because Rey you mentioned the NATO summit and uh one of the interesting things that came out of the NATO summit there was a lot and and Ray you can comment um first here uh this is what Donald Trump so he uh make went out of his way Trump did to meet with Golani or Alshara whatever we choose to call him by [laughter] um he went out of his way to have a meeting with him, you know, between both sides. And this is what he said during the meeting that has been raising eyebrows. No president's done as much for Israel as I have. Nobody even close. If you look at I mean, just look at all the things with Jerusalem, all the different things that we've done. [snorts] Um the Golan Heights, I did things nobody has ever done anything for Israel like me. And we made tremendous progress. And we're going to we've made a lot of progress with Iran, too. Wiped out their military, but they should have been done 47 years ago. So, Trump evoked the golden colon heights uh right in Golani's face as if Golani actually cares. But, uh, nonetheless, it was seen as an a bitter humiliation or an utter humiliation by those observing who know anything about the situation with regard to the region. Uh let uh uh Rey, your first comments on on the NATO summit in general in this uh development in particular. [snorts] Well, as you point out, it was highly disrespectful of Trump to be talking about Israel see or giving them the golden heights again. The Goolan Heights part of Syria were occupied by Israel 1967. Okay. June. In November, the UN Security Council unanimously resolution 242 said Israel had to withdraw the occupied territories 1967. So the history should not be ignored here. Uh do resistance forces have the right uh to fight against occupation forces? Yes, they do under international law. Do they have the right to use weaponry and arms? Yes, they do under international law. So, the Israelis are on the back foot here. That's the background. And all the stuff about Golani, the head chopper, now with really neatly polished black shoes like the rest of them. I mean, give me a break. This is sort of like theater and it's not funny. Yeah. And uh Trump said that he will be taking Syria off of the state sponsored terror list. I guess because Syria is not a state sponsor of terror. It is its state is [laughter] actually terrorist entity. Now I hate to joke about it like that but because there are such serious consequences to this but nonetheless sometimes you have to laugh. Uh Larry, your uh your thoughts on the NATO summit in general as well. I think the summit was a disaster. Um Trump uh reiterated his claim over Greenland. Uh insulted Spain and insulted uh Italy. Uh I I I would say he insulted the UK under Starmer, but Starmer himself is just personally insulting and revuls repulsive. So I'll give I'll give Trump a pass on that. Um but uh you know he promised that uh Ukraine they're going to give Ukraine the let them build the Patriot missile. [laughter] Yeah. We we've got like you know what was the number I read? 40 maybe it was 20 but 40 different subcontractors each have a piece of that action of putting together the Patriot missile and which is why it takes an actually from start to finish about two years per missile to get one built. uh not to mention the reliance on uh rare earth minerals pro that China is no longer providing or has put a put a restriction on w with respect to um exports to the United States and for use in uh military equipment. So, you know, they um they really didn't agree to any course of action uh other than Europe continues to double down on its desire to go to war with Russia. And you know, Russia has, you know, I think we've seen some a decisive shift at least in the language in the last week that Ditra Pesco twice has basically said uh the the special military operation is over. We're now at war. and that Russia is approaching this I think going to be approaching this entire endeavor in a much more different way that uh while they're they continue to say we remain open to negotiations but uh they're not hearing any kind of consiliatory tone coming out of anyone in Europe. Yeah. In your thoughts too, Ray, about the NATO summit in general, uh what do you what did you make of it? No, I agree with Larry and uh you know in the old crumblinologist tradition, you look at what they said last year. Uh particularly what did they say about article five of the NATO treaty which is you know one is attacked the other ones are supposed to come to to their aid. Uh well they said exactly the same thing this year as last year after Trump said we're out of here. We're not we're not buying any missiles. We're not going to sell you any missiles, Ukraine. We'll sell them to the Europeans at a little markup and they can give them so they don't have any money to buy the missile. Actually, we don't have any extra missiles in our inventory, so we can't Well, but but later, you know, it's really sort of a a comic show, but there were some interesting things over the last couple of week. Larry is right about the pressure that Putin is under now with respect to getting this damn thing over in Ukraine. And there were two manifestations of this. Actually, Larry mentioned Peskoff, the presidential spokesman. Uh, Pasco was talking about whether article 5 might, this was in a an interview with a Swiss uh outlet, whether article 5 applies or not. And he sort of dismissed, nobody's going to apply article 5 anymore. What? Okay. Then there's this other thing where um Margarita Simuan, the head of RT, who has been head of RT for 21 years now by Putin for her reporting in the Chetchia uh uprising and so forth. She's no dumb. She's she's pretty smart. She speaks English. She spent a year in high school in New Hampshire, I think it was. Anyhow, she's asked about, "Well, you're saying that uh maybe the president should more forcefully reply to these drone attacks and so forth. When do you think it should reply?" And she says, "Shut up. Yesterday." [laughter] Okay. So these are these are PR messages that show that even Putin's closest advisors are saying hey Vladimir for God's sake you should have replied yesterday and you know the NATO treaty forgot about it we don't have to worry about it my my take on this really is that Putin has a lot of hards that cards that he hasn't played okay Ukraine has no defense defense against air attack. My god, the patriots are all gone. Zinski has complained. We have no patriots. When the Russians hit us two nights ago, they all got through. Why? Because those damn Europeans are so stingy. They won't give us any of their patriots. And of course, the US doesn't have any to give because [laughter] so here we go again strategy and and you know the necessary wherewithal to do it. But more more important uh it seems to me that Puchin uh knows that in the coming months he has the capability to wrap up the remaining uh the remaining points that strong points they have u in in places like Constantinoka that has already been captured. Now the rasputs the the the drainy swampy season that starts the end of September usually. Well, the Russians I think calculate got two good full months plus to wipe these people out and to show people in Russia that look the battle on the ground is what's doing it. These long range missile attacks, yeah, they cause us inconvenience but they have no effect on the war. as Puchin says, quote, "This is the main point, period." End quote. The other thing I'd like to say is, uh, Starlake, I was really impressed about 3 weeks ago when Russia Day happened and, uh, Putin convened, oh, maybe about 20 non-commissioned officers of the infantry, right? The infantry wins the war. That's what as an infantry intelligence officer was in Gre anyhow that they were really being honored and then Putin says in the defense minister so what what's what what do you need and what's you got any problems let me hear him well they were all you know ra straight until Belvich the defense minister says now come on let's go so after about the third person did speak out Look, we're defenseless against the Starly guided stuff. It's impeded our advance. Can Can that be fixed? And um Bhin says this is all on camera. Of course, don't tell anybody. But yes, it can. We got our own system. Almost ready to be deployed. Please just be a little bit more patient. And then he turns to Bella Uso and he says, "You see this guy? This is a guy I appointed defenseman precisely because he knows how to get this stuff done, right? He spent his career in military industrial stuff. Are you going to do that?" Yes, sir. Commanderin-chief. So, so yeah, it's a real problem these drones on the battlefield as well as these long range uh penetrations. But the Russian there is good evidence now that the Russians have begun to deploy this anti-torlink thing and to be able to jam Starlink itself. So, uh, from my point of view, Putin being a very cautious person is going to bomb the hell out of military-industrial sites and everything he can in Ukraine, trying, as the Russians have done to spare civilian collateral damage. But taking that into account before he goes goes off halfcocked and hitting places in a NATO country uh well why should he be I mean Pascoff himself said informally article 5 doesn't matter. Well yeah Peskov can talk like that Putin not. So all I'm saying here is that Putin doesn't want to be faced with a situation where even though uh his advisers tell him that there's 5% 10% chance that anyone will invoke the article 5 of the NATO treaty he tells them why would I do that 5% 10% that's too high I don't need to do that just be a little bit more patient now I may be wrong on that but that's my forecast uh and I acknowledge that he is under increasing pressure. My uh response to that is he's got ways to diffuse that pressure and we'll know more when the elections for the Duma happen at the end of September. It's not too far away. Uh we'll know before and after how much those elections have any effect on all this. Uh and I don't know. We'll have to see what what comes out of those. [clears throat] Yeah. Well, uh, Larry, I know you got about four minutes, uh, uh, to go and maybe I want to leave you both with a big question. I saw this Sam Hussein who's a very respected uh journalist and has definitely done some uh really good things. But he wrote this that people have been commenting on talking about the possibility of the American Empire exercising strategic patience right now when it comes to Iran saying that the empire's long-term goals have compelled Hamas to relation control of Gaza, kill NASA, oust Maduro and Assad. Uh but several bigname critics of US government policy jabber are endlessly on podcasts about how the US establishment is losing. I want to give uh you both uh time to answer this. Larry, you first since you do have a hard deadline. Um just to understand uh how would you respond to this conclusion? So he's he's saying that the actually the United States is winning that this is all turn going in US more like exercising strategic patience meaning uh uh uh adapting and maneuvering uh these conflicts that uh of course this show has made quite quite clear that uh I we don't believe I don't believe they're going well but nonetheless uh so let me see let me see if I got this straight [clears throat] in the in the deft movements of the US policy establishment. Uh they have managed to get themselves now forced to abandon the US naval headquarters in Bahrain because it's no longer safe to stay there. Uh they've had to abandon uh the the air operation center, the combined air operations center that was at Aluded, which basically controlled all air traffic, monitored all movements from north to south. They've they've maneuvered themselves into a situation where Iran has blown up, you know, $3 billion worth of irreplaceable radar and satellite systems. Um, that the United States is now basically unable to keep any kind of uh full-time presence in any of of the Gulf countries for fear of that they'll be attacked and destroyed. And that was their strategy. Brilliant. Brilliant. God, I couldn't have come up with something better myself. I I mean really this uh the the what was the what was the journalist name that wrote that? Oh, is Sam Husini. Sam Husini. Uh he ought he ought to consider another profession, fantasy writing for Hollywood. Uh something like that because that's just ridiculous. You know, the what we've seen is the these the events of the last 13 months both uh with respect to what happened in the Red Sea and now what's happened with Iran is the the limits of US military power have been completely exposed and that the United States military while the most expensive in the world has turned out to be one of the least capable in the world. Right. All right. Well, Larry, I know you have to go soon, so you can certainly log off whenever you want. I want to thank Larry for all his hard work here. Uh, Larry, I learned a lot from watching what you say and what you do. I wish you God speed and I hope you get through your next three interviews today. Well, [laughter] at least I'll have you there along to help me, you know. Thank God. We'll have we'll have somebody with some wisdom, knowledge, and experience. [laughter] That's right. The next tour would be to with the both of us, right? Yes. So, all right. See, I'll see you in an hour. Thanks, Danny. All right. See you. Bye. All right, Ray. Yeah. Same to you. I wanted to uh uh give you a chance to answer this um because I found it interesting, especially given what's been happening with Iran, but also, you know, they bring up uh the author brings up other examples as well for maybe a fuller picture, but um I'm curious on your thoughts about it. Well, uh, Sam Husini is a friend of mine. I think he was sort of commenting in a snide kind of way on somebody else's, uh, predictions. Uh, the fact is, and it's very troublesome fact to for me, uh, that NATO leaders and the the media, the mainstream media in all western capitals are saying that Russia is losing and that Ukraine is winning. Now, one can be very jaundice and say, well, that's just because they want to make sure that more money is given to Zilinski. And that no doubt is part of it, but they have to know with the fall of Constantin especially uh that the battle has been joined and won by the Russians. Uh Putin has the option of going faster if he wants to. He doesn't really need to. Uh but but it's clear that Russia is winning. Now the propaganda such as it has been during the Ukraine war uh has been really unsettling because look at look at December 2022. The head of national intelligence, what was her name again? Uh I'll it'll come to me. Averil Haynes publicly. The Russians have lost. They've left so much weaponry on the battlefield and they have no indigenous capability to produce to produce the weapons that they've left on the battlefield. So, we're in terrific shape. So, that's what she tells Biden. That's what she tells the press. My god, where is she getting that? And then just several months later, um Biden is in I think he was in Helsinki and he asks Bill Burns, the head of CIA, give me a briefing. What what do I say about you about Ukraine? And so Bill said, I know what I'll do. I'll go visit Kief. And he talks to Zalinski. And Zalinski says, "No problem. Now, you told the president, "We got it made. Russia has already lost." Now, this is the head of the CIA, right? 10 days later, he goes up to Helsinki and he says, "Mr. President, I just heard from the UK from the Ukrainians that Russia's already lost. I mean, no problem." So, so Biden gets up and says, "Russia's already lost. No problem." Okay. So, this is three years, four years ago. Okay. Um, that's the kind of stuff that gets around and into the Washington Post and into the New York Times. It is still doing that. Now, if I'm a Russian, and [clears throat] that was my profession, putting myself in the shoes of the Russian leader. I said, "My god, why are they doing this? They must know. They they have satellite pictures galore. They know the losses. My god, why are they doing this? And the answer is, we don't know. And the answer that I give is beats the hell out of me. So when the Russians face an unanswered question like that that has really crucial dimensions to it, that makes them very uneasy. Why what are they preparing the people for when we do win in Ukraine? And it's a big surprise. And all of a sudden they say, "Oh my god, look at they pulled a rabbit out of a hat. What do we do now?" I just don't know. All I'm saying here, they'll stop now. Is that if the Russians don't know what this means, I don't know what it means either. Um that it's a real [sighs] It's a real paradox. It's a real conundrum uh that can only lead to more and more insecurity and a quicker response to anything they see that's going on. And we have that story. I don't know if it's true or not. Larry was one of the first ones to come up with it. But there is the story that Trump when he was talking about Ukraine or was it uh I guess it was Iran. Yeah. Was it Iran? Well, he he started talking about what about nukes and uh allegedly he was shut down. Now, we're not at that point yet, but so and he left the room. Well, I I don't know. How are you going to say whether what Trump may have said is true or not? I have if I'm a Russian, I have to give that story the benefit of the doubt. So look, in my view, this is significant only in so far as Putin realizes he's got to keep treat this guy with kid gloves. He's got to he's got to praise uh for example, in his latest conversation with with Trump, which Trump initiated, by the way, hour and a half, right? Uh the readout says that uh Trump really congratulated um the president on the Fourth of July festivities which were held in a way that only uh this particular president could possibly arrange them and they regularly in such readout indicate that Putin thanks the wife of the president for all the good work she's got done in resettling things and and that you know it's So, it's a mi a mixture of um oozing charm at every pore like the my lady story uh and then putting teeth in it saying look uh army infantry in Iran. That is completely unacceptable. Complete. It just means completely unacceptable. Beijing Beijing two days later says exactly the same thing. So if there's a invasion with ground troops, I mean if the head of Sentcom is so such a sick fan that he would bless that kind of thing and sacrifice all these troops, uh then the Russians and the Chinese are going to react in a in more forceful way and Iran will will be able to show that they're not in this alone that they have powerful protectors uh elsewhere in the global south and elsewhere in the world. So, uh it's a really difficult time. But I think the good news, and I will say it right out loud, we are lucky as hell to have somebody so cautious, perspeicacious, and unwilling to be provoked as Vladimir Vladimir Puchi. Yeah, well said uh Rey and I I just wanted to in s or less uh in response to Sam Husseini who I also resp I don't know him at all but I respect all he's done. I respect especially when he stands up to uh the uh you know the so-called press spokespeople etc. Uh Sam Husini. Sam Husini. Oh Sam. Yeah. Oh Right. Right. Right. Um but in terms of his point about strategic patience exercised by the empire, I just I mean I just don't see it. A lot of those developments he cited uh could have a much more fuller picture to them. I think even the idea that Hamas is relinquishing control of Gaza, there's a lot of fine details in there that uh will and necessitate actually Hamas and the resistance having a lot of participation in whatever happens in Gaza from here on out. Uh the NASA killing while horrible and should be seen as a setback. uh uh Hezbollah has fought incredibly uh effectively and has shown a level of strength that I don't think anybody had believed they had before uh the March 2026 restart of the resistance there and then Maduro as much as it pains me what's happening with Deli even meeting with Israeli um you know the Israeli mission and all of this that has been circulating in recent days I think that there's a lot to be said about how that situation inside of Venezuela will be determined by the broader Bolivarian movement at the end of the day. And they've gone through some horrific setbacks uh like for example a natural disaster for the of the earthquake and of course the continued sanctions that of course uh make it uh difficult and had made the Maduro capture and that war crime possible. But at the end of the day, I think the people there are going to be the final say and and of Assad, you know, that was a setback. We made the comments about Golani being the head of state. It's it's horrible. But at the end of the day, the axis of resistance is now stronger than it was uh since the start of the Iran war. That's quite clear from just the objective situation seeing how the United States and Israel are ultimately um you know having so much difficulty achieving this greater Israel project and of course uh keeping US age intact in the region. So setbacks always those will happen but at the same time I think the picture is a lot more full than uh that and uh but I do think it's an important point to debate and discuss because uh ultimately we do also have to draw conclusions from developments not just report them. But uh Ry any final words before we uh head out of here? Well, in the same spirit here, um Iran has threatened uh to attack Israel in a major way if Israel or the United States attacks infrastructure is the way they put it. Critical infrastructure in Iran, I imagine oil facilities and and other things like that. Now, uh, what bothers me on this score is that the Iranians have the capability to obliterate, pardon the term, Israel. What will Israel do in those circumstances? I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating. inextremists. Do you think a guy like Netanyahu and his co-conspirators would shy away? They don't shy away from genocide or force starvation or assassinations of any leader they can kill. Do you think they would shy away from using their nuclear weapons? I do not. And that's why we have to really treat this whole crisis really, really gingerly. and circumspectly and all the more so since we have a person who is so mercurial and actually not well at the helm in this country and with that said that's a good uh place to close thanks so much Annette for becoming a member Farzan for the super sticker and chili pepper for the super chat and other US oil problem the lion share of the crude is trapped underground due to equipment failure uh thanks for your participation and for your support. Everybody, make sure you hit the like button before we go. We're going to head out together. Uh, all the plays support this channel are in the video description below. I'll be back tomorrow with Mark Sloota, 1 p.m. Eastern time, July 11th. And until next time, Ray, any final words for the audience? Uh, just keep listening and keep watching and keep spreading the word because that's the only thing that's going to do it. I've devoted my the rest of my life to spreading some truth around. You're doing a far better job than I am, Danny. Let us all join and do that because I I' I've kind of got to have a basic faith in the American people if they know what's going on. That's a major major challenge right now. Yeah, it is. It is. Well, uh those are very uh great those are very wise words to end with. Everyone hit the like button. that will help uh more people see this.
Iran’s Long Path To Victory / Final Report From Iran Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris Jul 11, 2026
Today (July 11 ), which is Dimitri’s last day in Iran, he discusses the Trump regime’s latest ultimatim.
According to Axios, Trump has demanded that, by no later than today, Iran’s government must declare the Strait of Hormuz to be open and must pledge that it will never again attack vessels that attenpt to transit the Strait without the permission of Iran’s military. Otherwise, there will be “harsh consequences” for Iran.
In this report, Dimitri also discusses his reasons for coming to Iran at this time, what he learned on this voyage, and the lessons that Western regimes should draw from the remarkable events of the past week.
Finally, Dimitri also shares stunning footage from the shrine of Imam Reza and the former home of Iran’s martyred Supreme Leader, Imam Ali Khamenei.
Transcript
Good day. This is Demetri Lceris coming to you from the gorgeous Mallet Park in Thran, Iran on July 11th, 2026 for Reason to Resist. What you just saw was some footage that I shot from the train uh from Mashad to Thran this morning at about 7:00 a.m. Uh and uh you may have uh been able to make out in the distance in one of these clips I just shared with you some camels gallivanting in the open desert. Uh an unusual site uh for somebody like myself uh who was born and raised in Canada. In any case, um we arrived here this morning at around uh 11:00 a.m. after having left uh Mashad last night on that same train at around uh 10 p.m. So it was around a 13-our train ride. And uh I will be heading out to uh a destination uh I'm not inclined to disclose at the moment uh on my way back to Canada. I'll be heading out later tonight departing Iran. And for the time being, I anticipate that this will be my final report from Iridan for this particular trip, unless something uh uh that really uh obliges me to do another report happens between now and uh my departure time this evening. I'm going to uh share with you at the end of this report, which is going to focus first and foremost on the most recent developments in Trump's uh insane and escalating war of aggression on Iran. Uh I'm going to share with you after that and some other issues of a big picture nature that I want to comment upon. Uh the last footage that I shot when I was in Mashad uh two things in particular. Uh we were afforded the opportunity to visit the former home of uh Imam Ali Kamei uh whose body was laid to rest on July 9th in the Imam Resa shrine in Mashad. He lived in this home from uh for about 10 years. uh right up until the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. And uh in this uh brief video uh which is a tour of home of the home that he lived in at the time, you'll hear uh about uh uh his humble uh life prior to becoming the supreme leader of Iran and also how he was surveyed by uh the Savak, the vicious uh intelligence uh arm of the uh Shaw's regime. Uh and the other thing I'm going to show you is that yesterday for the first time we actually I actually went into the interior of the ImmA shrine and saw the tomb of uh the uh eighth Imam of uh the Shia faith. Uh and that was quite a powerful experience uh seeing in particular how uh the Shia faithful gathered around the tomb uh responded to it. How uh they were overcome with emotion uh in that room and uh just adjacent to where they where the tomb is ituated. They have laid to rest uh Imam Kamei. Now, we were not able to actually go into the room where his tomb is situated, but we stood outside it, and you'll uh see uh not only that it was very close to the tomb of Imamza, just a short walk away, dozens of meters at most, but also uh that this is an absolutely uh stunning work of architecture. uh the Imam Adza shrine, the entire complex really, but particularly the building in which uh these tombs are are held or situated. Uh so I'll show you that at the end of this video. And um in the interim, let me get into uh the most recent developments in this sane insane war of aggression. Uh but before I begin, let uh let me remind you that uh if you're not already a subscriber to Reason to Resist, please do become one. help us to expand the reach of our unapologetic on the ground resistance journalism and if you find this video to be informative please do like and share it. So with that uh the latest news uh emanating from Washington via the ever reliable mouthpiece of Donald Trump Barakid of Axios is that uh Trump the Trump regime has given uh the Islamic Republic until today uh Saturday July 11th to renounce control over the Strait of Hormuz and to pledge that uh it did uh that it will not attack any vessels at all and that the uh transit through the straight will be free and open without any control by the Islamic Republic. And on top of all of that uh they have to say in some suitably abject language the Iranians that they made a mistake uh in attacking these vessels that transited through the straight of Hormuz without their permission. Um and this article of course is based entirely as are virtually all of the articles uh that Baraka has Davidid has written the former Israeli intelligence agent about this war on unnamed US officials. And let me tell you folks if you still believe in articles that are based on unnamed US officials particularly those written by Badak Ravidit uh I think you need to go back to elementary school and learn the basics of a healthy dose of skepticism. I mean seriously there is no reason whatsoever to attach any weight uh to anything that Barak Raviv has to say about this war, Donald Trump, Israel, geopolitics generally, particularly when it is based upon unnamed US officials or unnamed Israeli officials or unnamed officials from some vassel of Washington. Uh, nonetheless, I I do want to point out one other thing about this article. Uh, that one of the unnamed officials said that there will be harsh consequences if Idran doesn't comply with the deal. And by the way, compared to some of the genocidal language that Trump himself has used, uh, that is a rather mild threat. Uh and the other thing is that Ravid says in this article that after Iran this week uh attacked vessels in the street of Hormuz uh that the United States struck Iran twice. There were two rounds of bombing. Nowhere in his article does he actually mention that the Iranians hit back. He doesn't even say that they attempted, let alone actually did strike US military bases in the region. Now, why is this omission journalistically significant? Because uh by leaving that information out, it conveys the impression that the Iranians did nothing. That they just sat there passively while they got pounded in two rounds of bombing. Uh and that will mislead people about the true nature of the struggle that is happening in the street of Hormuz and uh the capabilities of the Iranians to hit back in their determination to do so. It will cause people to misjudge the readership of Axios. what is actually going on here. And I I I should also add that the other corporate media outlets around the west faithfully reproduce whatever barakid, any so-called breaking story, any bombshell that this clown puts out based on these ubiquitous unnamed US officials, they repeat it all over the western corporate media. So it becomes the dominant story even though it has zero credibility whatsoever. So this is extremely misleading uh reporting. It is at best journalistic malpractice and uh it only drives home the point that Barak Ravid he is no journalist. That man is uh at best a scribe for uh the Trump regime, a an uncritical scribe and at worst uh an agent of the genocidal child murdering Israeli military. Now, another piece of uh significant news uh is that the Europeans are saying that they will uh consider they will consider some form of uh transit fee or service fee uh that uh will be payable to Iran uh under some as yet to be devised uh regulatory regime for the straight of Hormuz. This on the surface seems uh p it seems almost as though the door is opening a crack for uh the Adanians to achieve their objective at least from the perspective of the Europeans. And let's be clear, the Europeans are in serious trouble here. They are far more vulnerable to uh a sustained closure of the straight of Hormuz than uh the United States because they have far less oil and gas of their own. Um and they should be desperate to be getting the straight of Hormuz opened. and if they were acting in the interests of their people, they would readily pay some reasonable fee to get the ships out. Uh but uh so far they fought that tooth and nail. Now, as I say, this on the surface appears as though there may be some room for compromise. But here's the kicker, folks. They will only agree to it, if they agree to it at all, if the payment of the fee is voluntary. So, uh, the first question you should be asking yourself is if you're not actually obliged to pay this fee to Iran in order to get your vessels through the straight of Hermuz, why the hell would you pay it? Who is actually going to end up paying this fee? I mean, maybe some people as an act of goodwill, some companies, for reasons that are unknown to me, this is not in the nature of what for-profit companies uh do, nor is it in the nature of what Western governments do uh who have demonstrated over decades implacable hostility towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. But let's suppose that some shipping companies or governments do actually pay a fee voluntarily. The amount of money that ultimately will be paid to Iran will be negligible. it will not even be remotely sufficient to compensate it on for the devastating uh forms of warfare that the west has waged on it for decades. Economic warfare, military uh aggression, uh cyber warfare, lawfare, you know, for example, at the United Nations Security Council, uh you know, the Iran, I think at this stage, can fairly be said to be owed uh by way of just reparations somewhere in the range of trillions of dollars. Uh, so this voluntary scheme is a fraud. And let me tell you what I think is going on here. There may be people who get all excited about this and say, "Oh, whoa, the Europeans are are going to actually do a deal that will satisfy the Iranians." No, what this is is the Europeans in their dastardly, cowardly, sneaky, slimy, con man sort of way coming up with some scheme which they know is not going to result in significant compensation ever being paid to Iran, but which they believe might be a face-saving off-ramp for the so-called Iranian regime to give up on its demand uh that uh there be uh fees paid for transiting the straight of Hormuz. In any case, I think this uh scheme, anything involving purely voluntary payments uh will be rejected out of hand by the Iranians and the existential struggle for the Strait of Hormuz will continue. Uh and it will ultimately be lost by the West because there is no military solution to Idran's control of the Strait of Hormuz for reasons that I've talked about at length on this program. I'm not going to repeat them now. Uh and the only real question is how much damage is uh Trump and uh his vassels in the west and his Arab autocratic vassels, the dictators in the region who serve him. How much damage are they going to do to their own economies and to the global economy before they finally pay the piper? That's the only real question here. And I'm not really interested, nor should you be, in those people complaining that the uh any compulsory fees payable to Iran would violate international law. First of all, as I've covered, that is debatable. But secondly, if you are perpetrating grotesque violations of international law, including against Iran itself, then you have forfeited any moral authority or right to invoke international law. And in fact, the West is taking a total wrecking ball to it. uh it is uh virtually now devoid of credibility and is having no meaningful impact on the conduct of western states or uh their proxies around the world. Uh so to hell with you in your international law. Uh the only people uh in whose mouth uh I uh attach weight uh or whose whose pronouncements about international law I uh I regard as weighty and worthy of consideration are those who actually make a good fa faith effort to comply with it. Uh and that certainly doesn't include any western government. Uh now uh moving on I want to talk uh about some larger uh picture issues. Um actually before I do that uh for what it's worth uh my prediction is they're going there's going to be more warfare. I don't know if there's going to be a quote unquote harsh response uh when this day inevitably goes by without uh the Iranian government complying with the demands uh that were communicated to it through Barak Ravid and Axios by unnamed US officials. I don't think they're going to comply. I'm virtually certain of it. And uh therefore there uh there's going to be another moment of truth for the Trump regime. What is it going to do? Probably it will opt for violence. How much uh remains to be seen. Uh but this is going to go on for some time and unless and until uh and I may sound like a broken record here. Uh the US economy is screaming in pain and uh the Iranian uh government has inflicted real deterrence real deterrence on the United States. Uh will there be any hope of a permanent end to this decadesl long uh depraved war that the west has been waging on the Islamic Republic of Iran? So now uh before I how you this footage uh that I mentioned at the outset, I want to discuss some big picture issues. And uh first of all uh I'm I'm going to start by referring to a comment on X that I saw from a lawyer uh whom I know a Canadian human rights lawyer. Uh he has done some good work in the past. I believe him to be anti-ionist. uh but uh he is uh I would say relatively mainstream uh in Canada and I may have met him personally at some point or spoken to him in a Zoom call at some point but I don't really know him that well. I know of him and generally speaking he has done good work as a human rights lawyer. So he sent me and you know just as a matter of professional courtesy and because I think he has done some good work as a human rights lawyer I'm not going to name him. Uh I'm not interested in embarrassing the guy. I'm referring to him only because it's a good launching point for this discussion which is uh this issue that I want to take up with you. Um and so he said to me, he started it off by coming on to my uh my uh X feed and replying to a uh post that I put out about something extraordinary I had seen here in Iran. And he his his reply was something along the lines of I don't know why you are honoring that man. And uh by that man he clearly meant the martyr uh Imam Kmeni. Uh and so this brings me to the whole question of what my opinion of Imam Khani is. And uh let me tell you that I have been asked that question. I've done probably about two dozen interviews here uh for a variety of Iranian media outlets and some foreign media outlets. I've been on uh national television on several occasions. could be well over 10 or 15 uh at this point. Plus, I've been uh quoted in the online media. And again and again during the past week, I have been asked what I think of Immi. And I'm going to tell you exactly what I told uh the Adanian media, which is my honest uh response. I would never give anything but an honest response to this question. Uh first of all uh for virtually my entire life uh adult life I have heard nothing but unrelenting criticism, negativity and bombast about uh Imam Khani and the Islamic Republic of Iran. uh and of course that has come overwhelmingly from western governments and from uh western corporate media and also I it should be said uh some mainstream western human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Now uh I attach absolutely no weight whatsoever and this is what I said to the I'm I'm telling you exactly what I told the Iranian media. I have learned in the course of my life at to attach zero weight zero weight to what uh the western corporate media and western government say about any government uh that refuses to be a vassel of Washington. And there's no question that the Iranian government refuses to be a vassel of Washington. uh whether they're talking about Venezuela, uh uh the Russian Federation, China, North Korea, Yemen, you name it. Uh I uh don't give a damn. I couldn't care less. A rat's ass uh is what I uh attach that much weight and importance to the opinions of Western governments and corporate media about governments around the world that refuse to be vassels of Washington. That's number one. Now, that doesn't mean that I automatically think these governments are good actors. Just because I don't attach weight to their criticisms doesn't mean I think that they are saintly or virtuous or that they deserve my praise. Uh but uh all I'm saying is uh I come to the whole question with an open mind notwithstanding the fact that I have been told all of these terrible things about uh the government of the Islamic Republic. Um so that's the first thing. The second thing is uh I know precious little objective information about the life of Imam Kamini. Very very little. I've learned a good bit on this trip, but still it's just a a small tiny fraction of the uh arc of this man's life uh that I've become familiar with. And I'm really not in a position to make any uh broad sweeping uh confident pronouncements about what sort of individual he was. And again, this is exactly what I said to the media. Uh now, here's what I do know. Here's what I can say with a high degree of confidence. Uh first of all uh he was not murdered along with uh members of his immediate family by the United States in Israel because of human rights violations or uh concerns about democracy or international legal violations or uh threats of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. That's all bulocks. That had nothing to do with why they murdered him. Murdered him. They murdered him and his close family members because he refused to be a vassel of Washington. It's as simple as that. He refused to sell out his people and hand over the treasures of this wealthy rich nation 5,000-year-old civilization to control by the depraved pedophiles in Washington and Tel Aviv. And for that he paid with his life. That is a certainty. Uh we can say this with the utmost confidence because of the uh long and sorted record of western governments of lying about respect for international law and human rights and eliminating, killing, torturing, persecuting people in leadership positions in the non-western world in particular who refused to be vassels of Washington. uh and uh you know and the mere and and just the fact that they killed him at the same time as the Israelis and the Americans were carrying out the most in-your-face audacious genocide in human history. Uh that tells you all you need to know about their real motivation for killing this man. What else do I know about Imam Kamini? I know that he was uh in effect the leader of the uh most uh courageous and effective resistance movement. And I by resistance I mean resistance to western hegemony in the world today and the one that has made by far the greatest sacrifices in the world today. He was the leader of that movement. Uh certainly a leader of that movement. And uh the third thing I know about Imam Kamei is that uh he could have easily sold out his people if he had wanted to. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for him to do what for example the Arab autocrats have done or uh what the uh European vassels of Washington have done. how they've sold out their people and their countries, these traitors, time and time again in order to enrich themselves and empower themselves and glorify themselves and satisfy their gigantic egos uh by putting themselves in positions of power and having microphones constantly shoved in their mouths and, you know, living in palatial prime ministerial and presidential residences and eating filemen and fuagra and sipping on the finest wine and champagne all at taxpayer expense. He could have gone down that path like so many before him, but he said no. He refused and that's why they killed him. And for that reason alone, I am fully prepared to honor this man. Uh I don't know what else he may or may not have done in his life that was virtuous or uh uh evil. uh I'm not in a position to uh evaluate uh uh the vast majority of his life but I can say those things with confidence and uh for that reason alone he does deserve uh deep respect on the part of people all around the world at least those who care about justice uh sovereignty of nations equality and uh anti-imperialism now uh again this is not in some way shape or form an endorsement ment of everything he has ever said or done. Do not take this as uh as such a statement. Uh I simply don't know enough about the man's life in order to go any further than I've just gone. And I also want to say uh that the supposition that by coming here and uh I'm this is the very first time I've actually said on my program what I think of Ali Hamini. I've said it on Iranian television this week uh many times because I was constantly asked the question. Uh but uh up until now all I've been doing uh on my own platform is reporting what I'm seeing. That's it. Reporting what I'm seeing. uh because I think it's very important that people understand what what tens of millions of Iranians actually think about Imam Kamini. Uh which brings me to uh the whole subject of public opinion in this country. Now um I want to just point out that it is customary in the west uh that uh we uh attach in the public discourse on a daily basis uh enormous weight to public opinion polls offered up by uh corporate entities most of which uh are operated for a profit uh to uh guide us in our understanding of how the public views various issues of importance. Okay. We we rely upon these polls every single day. And um these polls in broadstrokes how they work is uh the polling firm will go and uh pick a statistically significant sample uh randomly selected sample of people from uh a targeted population uh you know whose opinion they want to assess and uh they'll ask them a question and they'll get an answer. Usually it's done, you know, it can be done in person, but more often than not nowadays it's done electronically. It's done by telephone. Uh so they're not even face to face. uh and um they then uh extrapolate from the answers that they receive from this tiny little sample uh to the broader population and based upon a statistical uh you know formulation they'll come out with the conclusion that uh this represents public opinion within the targeted population uh you know to uh within a certain range plus or minus 2% or plus and minus 3%. and we routinely rely upon these polls. Now, um I'm not going to uh tell you that you shouldn't rely upon these polls. I think there are a lot of legitimate questions about the accuracy of polls in the West for a whole variety of reasons. All I'm going to say is this. Uh you know, um the people who are answering these questions uh in these polls, uh there's no cost to them of lying. There's absolutely no cost to them of lying. It's not like, you know, they'll be tried for perjury if they are determined to have lied to the pollster. Uh, and, uh, all they got to do is basically, you know, uh, type an answer onto a keyboard or say yes or no, uh, in, uh, a conversation on the telephone. They may or may not be telling the truth. Uh, they may or may not feel strongly about the answer that they give. They may just feel that way on that particular day, but the next day they have a completely different view about the question uh, that was put to them. Uh so it might be just some kind of transitory feeling that they express to the pollster which doesn't really tell you much about the general views within the population. But the bottom line is here you know the people who respond to these polls there's no cost to them of lying or offering up some answer that is illconsidered uh is just a fleeting impression or feeling that they have. There's no cost. Now let's uh compare this to what I witnessed here this week. What I witnessed here this week was millions of people. This is what I saw with my own eyes. Okay? Uh this is not the total number because I was at these uh funeral processions and these prayer uh gatherings in massive mosques only for a few hours at a time. The actual uh events took place for far more time than I was physically present. But while I was there uh 3 days in Thran and two days in Mashad, I saw millions of people with my own eyes cumulatively over that period of time. Uh the number is certainly in the tens of millions. According to the Yanian government, it's somewhere between 40 and 43 million people in total. Uh they came to this conclusion they say using a variety of methods including uh the number of passengers using the metro system in Thran. Uh they looked at cell phone activity. Uh they looked at uh bank card activity, things of that nature. Uh in addition, there was, you know, extensive aerial footage, helicopters, overhead, drone footage, and so forth. So they say they looked at a variety of sources, and it was, uh, you know, 40 to 43 million, which would make it by far the largest funeral in recorded history. I can't verify, I haven't seen, you know, the uh the the data that they rely upon. They only described in broad terms how they came to this conclusion. But what I can say is that I myself saw millions of people in the streets grieving the passing of and I walked among them. I wasn't that great distance. I walked among them every time, listened to them and on some occasions actually spoke to them and interviewed them. And uh I myself saw millions of people in the relatively short time that I was actually in or around uh those funeral processions. So it seems to me uh a virtual certainty and I didn't even see any of it was not present at all in Iraq in Najaf or Karabala where there were millions of people apparently. Uh so I think it's safe to say that there were tens of millions of people 20 million I would say at least uh and the number may be as high as 40. Now Iran has a population uh in the range of about 93 million people. 93 million people and the overwhelming majority of those people I assure you were Iranians. there were foreigners there but uh they probably constituted less than uh 10% I would estimate of the uh just based upon my personal interactions with people less than 10% of the total number so you are talking about a huge swath of the Iranian population is it a majority no uh but it is a large segment of the Iranian population it is at a minimum at a bare minimum a very large minority of the Iranian population and This act of support, this expression of support had a cost. The cost was you actually had to go out in public in searing heat at a time when your country was being bombed by the child murdering uh Trump regime uh and spend hours of your time and not just actually there at the procession. Getting to it was quite a chore. I saw people walking in the blazing heat kilometers uh from uh and to their residences just to get to the uh the lo the location of the funeral procession. So you may say this is not an enormous cost, but it is a cost. It's a hell of a lot bigger cost uh than the cost that one must pay to answer a pollster over the telephone or via your computer. Okay. So what am I saying here? I'm saying to you that I think that the evidence that I witnessed of support for the uh martyr supreme leader of Iran with my own eyes and I heard with my own ears is much more weighty than a poll. uh because of the fact that I literally saw these people out there in conditions that exposed them to risk uh in conditions that required them to expend a significant amount of their time uh during a period of considerable hardship for this country. And uh I saw them cry, I saw them shout, I saw them I saw them and heard them demand justice. Uh to me this is much more compelling uh than some nameless individual uh whom some for-profit or not for-p profofit pollster says gave a particular answer in you know a survey that took a few seconds for them to fill out uh with there being no risk no cost to them whatsoever of misrepresenting their position or offering up some view that was just some transitory fleeting opinion that they happen to have in that particular moment. Okay, this is com this is probably in my view the most compelling credible evidence you could have of of support for a political or religious figure. Uh the fact that people come out spend hours of their time in very harsh uh weather conditions at a time when their country is being bombed by the most destructive maniacal evil power that the world has ever seen. Uh that to me is the most compelling evidence of support that you could possibly have. Now again, does this mean the majority of the Iranian population feels this way about Imam Kamei? Uh I don't know. I can't say that uh with a high level of confidence. It may well be. Uh but I can only tell you about what I saw with my own eyes. And what I saw with my own eyes completely undermines the Western narrative. The western narrative being that only a tiny fanatical fringe of the population supports Imam Hamei or supported him and support the Islamic Republic and if they are given any kind of an opportunity to overthrow them and rid themselves of this so-called regime, they will do it in a heartbeat and happily replace it with some regime that is well disposed towards Washington and the West generally. That's the narrative. Well, uh, what we saw this week, my friends, uh, blows that narrative out of the water, and that is why I came here. My message to that lawyer who put that comment out there, even though I do for the reasons I've articulated, I respect what Imam Khani did in his life. That's not again an endorsement of everything he ever did. I don't know enough to give an endorsement of everything he ever did. And if I did have a wholesome view about his life or knowledge about his life, I may have some very serious criticisms to offer, but I don't. Uh, so it happens, it so happens for the reasons I've articulated that I do think he merits our respect. But that's not why I came here. I didn't come here to honor him or anywhere anyone else. I came here to discover whether in fact the western narrative about uh the Islamic Republic of Iran is true. And we can now say to my mind uh beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's complete and utter bollocks. You may not like it. You may think that sucks. You may detest the Islamic Republic of Iran. But there are tens of millions of people here in this country who support the Islamic Republic of Iran, who respected or even revered the supreme leader, the martyed supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And that is a reality that we have to deal with. If you want to have an intelligent, humane foreign policy, you have to deal in reality. You don't deal with the world as you wish it to be. You deal with the world as it is. And any politician out there uh that is qualified to hold public office will know this. And if you don't know this, then you've got no goddamn business holding public office. you should be uh run out of town, run out of the capital, run out of the halls of power because you are going to lead us down the path to misery and destruction uh by pursuing a foreign policy that is based upon your own personal fantasies and your own personal wish list rather than on the obvious demonstrable facts of this world. So that's uh why I came here. Now there will be people out there uh you know bad faith actors who will want to insinuate this happens every single time I come to a country like this and provide this kind of coverage factual coverage in a country that is being targeted by these depraved criminals from the west. I get accused of having some uh monetary motivation for doing this. So I'm just going to lay it out there. Uh, I haven't been paid a dime by anybody to do this subject to one qualification, which I'm going to explain to you in a moment. Not only have I not been compensated for my time in reporting here, it's been, believe me, a full-time job. There's been no partying going on here. Okay? This has been hard work every day for the eight days that I've been here. And, uh, it's been very uh, uncomfortable work, frankly, because of the heat. and we spend so much time out in the blazing hot sun uh photographing these events and and speaking to people in the streets. Uh it has not been uh what I would call uh a uh a gay old time. It has been really hard, grueling work and I've not been paid a dime for it. And in addition, I've paid my own expenses as I do on all of these trips. Every single time I've gone to Lebanon, every time I've gone to Palestine, every time I have come to Idan, I have paid my own expenses and I have not been compensated a dime for my work subject to this one qualification. Uh the qualification is that uh my YouTube channel, Reason to Resist, is monetized. And in addition, some people do make donations uh to our channel. Uh, and by the way, if you're interested in doing that, look at the description to this video. Uh, I I very rarely, by the way, ask for donations. I almost never do it, but since I'm on the subject of donations, if you are interested in, uh, donating and helping us to do this work and expand our on the ground coverage, we do encourage you to make donations, and you can find out how to do that by looking at the description to this video. But uh let me assure you that since we founded this channel uh about uh two years ago, a little less than two years ago, uh we have not generated enough money from uh monetization uh payments and donations to cover our expenses. Uh and here I'm talking about all the expenses because of course the traveling expenses when we do on the ground reporting is just part of our expenses. We have expenses related related to editing. Uh we have staff who does uh some of our editing. Uh we have uh uh uh you know various types of subscriptions and software and you know we have to buy uh you know computer equipment, photographic equipment so forth. Uh so uh I have an office uh that I use in Montreal strictly for the purpose of uh doing uh reports for reason to resist. I have to pay a rent for that office. So 38 minutesuh you know when you add it all up uh from the time we founded Reason to Resist a little less than two years ago, it exceeds the money we have received from monetization and from uh donations. So this has actually cost me money. Okay, not only do I not get paid for doing what is in effect a full-time job, some weeks it's more than a full-time job and it involves considerable personal risk when I come to war zones uh as I have this week. Um, not only am I not paid, but I've actually had to dole some money out of my own pocket in order to do this work. So, look, that doesn't mean that everything that I uh report is correct. I try to be as accurate as possible. It doesn't mean that all of my opinions are sound opinions. I try to have good opinions, well-reasoned opinions that are based upon evidence. Uh, you know, you may want to criticize uh the substance of what I've had to say in some report or another. Uh but uh don't tell me uh that I have some ulterior motive for doing this work, Okay? I got no 39 minutesulterior motive. In fact, what I just told you, how many people who do journalism can say this? What I just told you that they're not paid for the work that they do and that they actually have to dole money out of their pockets to do it even when they are putting their lives on the line to do that work. So I'm saying all of this for one simple reason. All the haters out there who are going to want to attack my bonafidees and claim that I have some personal gain to acrewue as a result of doing this work that I'm somehow, you know, have been incentivized to be an agent of the regime in is in Iran. You know, go to hell all of you. Okay, you people. I I hardly know anybody at all uh particularly amongst this population of haters who would be willing to do uh the work that I have been doing for nearly the past two years with no compensation and and and also to dole out money out of their own pocket even when uh doing that work has entailed significant personal risk. I don't I don't know that any any of these people who criticize me have ever done such a thing and I really doubt they ever have or ever will. So uh yeah to hell with all of you haters out there. Now, uh, with that, I think I've covered off pretty much everything, uh, I wanted to say, uh, except actually two items before I show you this footage I mentioned at the outset. Uh, number one, uh, in one of the speeches I was asked to give here, uh, I mentioned at the very outset of the speech a wonderful documentary, uh, called Alj Leamech de Revolutionire. It was uh uh produced I think in 2017 uh by a very talented documentary filmmaker uh from Algeria. I may get his name wrong here but as I recall his name was Ben uh Salama something along those lines and I do apologize to him if I've mispronounced his name. In any case uh what is this documentary about? this documentary is about and by the way uh if you don't speak French the title means Alir's uh the mecca of revolutionaries and so this documentary is about the period uh the few years uh following uh the um the uh Algeria's uh winning of independence in a brutal war in which the savages uh in uh the French regime murdered millions of Algerians because they simply wanted to be sovereign and to have their own country and to rid themselves of this uh colonial pestilence that had afflicted them for so long. Um so they finally achieved independence in 1962 and for a number of years uh particularly when uh a leader by the name of Benbella was in power in Algeria. Alier the capital of Algeria did actually serve as the mecca of revolutionaries. It was frequented by people like uh Malcolm X, uh members of the Black Panthers, uh Nelson Mandela, uh Patrice Lumumba, Fidel Castro, Cheay 42 minutesGuavada, uh and many other uh leading figures uh from revolutionary movements around the world. And uh unfortunately eventually uh for a variety of reasons which are uh discussed in some detail in that documentary which I've watched several times and I I highly commend it to you uh alers ceased to play that role. Well uh what I told people in my speech today earlier this week when I talked about this re this uh this documentary is that today uh the mecca of revolutionaries is right here. Thran. Thran is and should be the place on which revolutionaries around the world converge in order to discuss, cooperate, collaborate in the liberation of oppressed peoples all around this world by any and all means necessary. That's what it should be. That's what it can be. And I think that that's what it very much has become. And it's interesting to me that the predecessor Mecca of revolutionaries was also from a predominantly Muslim country like Idran is. What significance you take from that I leave it to you to decide. In any case, um the other thing I want to say to you before I show you this footage uh is share with you is that uh when I was walking back on the night that they buried uh the martyed Imam Kamei uh at the uh spectacular ImmA shrine really the footage you're about to see I think will give you some sense of its extraordinary beauty. As I was walking back to my hotel that night, a woman uh an Iranian woman uh stopped me in the street. She saw that I was uh talking into my camera in English and that I was wearing a badge, a journalist identification. And uh she spoke impeccable English, but she was clearly Ian and she had an accent. And uh and she said to me uh first of all uh that she couldn't thank me enough for coming to her country and uh telling 44 minutesuh the West the truth about Iran. And then she looked uh into my camera, which I stupidly thought was turned on, but it wasn't. And she said to me, "Look all around me." and she was surrounded of course uh by masses of people mourning uh the martyed Ali Kamei. She said, "This is Iran. This is the real Iran." And then she pointed at herself. She said, "I am not AI. I'm a real human being and I'm speaking to you here from Iran today. And this is Iran." So with that, let me uh turn over uh to you the uh footage that I shot first of the uh interior of the Imam Resa shrine. The Imam Imam Resa shrine. This is for the eighth Imam of uh the Shia faith and uh the only one who is buried in uh Iran. Uh and when I was there, I was told that uh you know people who are 45 minutesfaithful Shia uh members of our entourage that uh millions of uh people tens of millions of people come to the shrine every year. Often times it's it's almost like the shrine of last hope. They come when all else has failed. They're on the verge of bankruptcy. They have some terminal illness. Uh their marriage has broken down. Uh you know the person that they love deeply has abandoned them. uh they come to this shrine uh to to be uh saved and to be revived and to find hope. And uh I was told many a story while I was there about miracles that uh they tell me had happened uh when people came to the shrine seeking uh uh assistance uh in their hour of need from Imam Resa. In any case, that may uh you know, this is a belief that is widely shared amongst the Shia here. Uh that this shrine uh does serve that purpose and uh that may help you to understand why you're about to see so much emotion amongst the faithful who were there at the time when I visited. And then afterwards uh as I say, you'll see a brief report from uh the residents of uh the former residents of the martyed Imam Kmeni uh in the 10 years prior to the Islamic Revolution. Uh thank you very much for watching our coverage from Iran uh during the past eight days. Uh for me personally uh even if of course I hope I very very deeply that our reporting has enlightened you. Uh that is the primary motivation uh for our coming here and doing what we do. Um but even if and I would be very saddened if this were true, we didn't actually enlighten a single human being on this planet uh by means of our reporting during the past week. I still will uh feel with all my heart and soul that uh coming here uh was eminently worth it because this was what I saw during this week, one of the most marvelous experiences of my life. I've never seen anything like it and I doubt I ever will again. This is where the martinate supreme leader Ameni has been uh intombed. Wow. What's up? ee the masses of people who have come to see his final resting place. That is the tomb of Imamza. here. This is where they have placed in order stream. It's not open to the public yet. So, it's you can see it's a bit very very close to the tomb of Imamza. which is a a sign of great respect. Heat. Heat. Okay, Take it away. Good day everybody. It's Dimmitri Lceris coming to you from Mashad, Iran on July 8th, 2026. Uh I'm standing in the courtyard of what used to be the residence of the martyrd supreme leader of Iran, Ali Hamei. Uh we were we as in uh the foreign journalists uh in our entourage were offered the opportunity to come here and to see how he lived uh this man uh in his 30s. Uh he we were told uh lived in this house for about 10 years 10 years previous to the Islamic Revolution in 1979. And uh we're going to uh share with you uh some footage and commentary uh from uh a local uh cleric who is familiar with the history of this residence. Um, and you'll see as we approach uh what used to be the Supreme Leader's residence and as we tour the interior that it's very uh simple, very austere uh residence. And uh frankly, if we hadn't been told that this was uh formerly the residence of the Supreme Leader, uh we wouldn't have recognized it from the street. Uh, and I and soon as I saw it, uh, I thought to myself, I tried to imagine what, let's say, some Trumpian figure from the halls of power in the west would want, uh, his or her former residence to look like. I suspect it would be a lot more conspicuous and lavish than what we found here today. In any case, uh, let's, uh, let's have a closer look at the exterior and in the interior and hear from the cleric uh, who guided us about the history of this place. In the name of God the compassion of the merciful. I extend my deepest condolences on the occasion of Muaram and also on the occasion of martyed of Iran's supreme leader. This is an old neighborhood in Mashad. It's called Sur. And this is Milan Milan 27. This is well known as or scholars. That's right. Street. There were lots of Islamic scholars here living in this alley. Okay. in uh in the year 1346 Iranian calendar uh Iran's supreme leader uh purchased a 500 m land here by the help of his father and his father-in-law. His father-in-law was one of the merchants of that time. Uh the land which he had uh the land which the land which he had purchased was 500 m but because he hadn't enough uh money to build the place he divides it to part 200 he gives 200 150 m of the land to someone else to build a twostory building and four store building uh two. Yeah, that's right. for uh supreme leader and two store for the constructor. Twotory building. Yeah. Okay. Iran supreme leader used to live here up until the uh victory of uh revolution in 1979. So it's about 1967 to 1977. Okay. 79. Uh he had lived in rent rented houses uh four rented houses before purchasing this uh land. This was a market at that timearket and it was government intelligent uh force of sha. Okay. The supermarket was a cover and he was uh the owner was the intelligent uh agent. Well, the guy reported all the visits that that were taking place here. Marti, Martahari, revolutionary figures. Yeah. the military figures of that time. Okay. Well, then uh at that time finds out that he's a secret agent. Uh he has a plan that when he receives guests, he sends them out from the other uh door. Back door. Yeah. From the back door. And also uh sometimes when he has guests, he sends his children to do some shopping from there in order to keep them busy and they can have their meetings freely. Yes. This was the hole and then these two blocks next to each other are uh 500 square meters and well the one divided two part doctor. You know, it's uh remarkable how simple this has remained. You know, they haven't turned it into like a Trumpian shrine to his greatness. Theme park. Yeah, exactly. very austere. Yeah. You wouldn't even know it if you weren't led here by knowledgeable people. They will have these gardens, but you can't see from the street. Yeah, it's amazing. This is like a peaceful Stop. Stop. Muslim will shine here. Wow. Warm welcome to all of you. All the place that you are right now belong to the martyr supreme leader and he has been living here uh till for 10 years till 1979. for the tree that you see growing on the wall that's been planted by the supreme leader. Yeah, there also the thick uh tree has been planted by the Marty Supreme Leader. Okay. After the Islamic revolution when well Islamic revolution was victorious the supreme leader sold this property to his brother. As already told there are two doors for this building that sometimes they use one for entrance, the other for exit in order to uh well control the while the visitors were coming here. The revolutionaries were coming here. Okay. Well, Supreme Mart Supreme Leader was arrested several times in this place. in 1978, one year prior to Islamic revolution victory while the intelligence of one midnight come here and they bang the door when Marcus actually opens the door a bit late. They forcefully open the door and kick his leg. Yes. At that night was resented because his family was there. They were uh they woke up because of the harsh voice that the agents made. And uh supreme leader actually was uh a little bit uh anxious and sad because of what happened. Uh after when he was arrested at that time well he was sent to exile for 260 6 minutesdays in haven't you seen for 290 days it was sent to exile took city in south east of Iran You can comment as something. Vietnamese. So, we are now in the basement of what used to be the home of Ali Kami. in the 10 years leading up to the revolution, the Islamic Revolution. And uh they've converted this into a sort of mini archive to get a sense of uh the trajectory of his life. No, you can show me. These documents uh are from criminal proceedings that were brought against uh the martyr supreme leader when he was a cleric in the pre-revolutionary years. So these proceedings would have been brought against him uh by the uh the authorities of this show.
Some final thoughts from Patrick Henningsen in Iran's second largest city, the holy city of Mashhad, following the final day of a week's long state funeral procession for the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, assassinated with members of his family by the US and Israel in late February 2026. This week has revealed many truths about Iran, the Middle East/West Asia, as well the the direction of global geopolitics in general. All this and more.