Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down ...

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Iran Just HIT US Navy HARD in Strait of Hormuz, Trump STUNNED | Mohammad Marandi
Danny Haiphong
Apr 19, 2026

Prof. Mohammad Marandi joins to discuss the massive turn that the war on Iran has taken as the Strait of Hormuz becomes the flashpoint for major escalation between the IRGC and the US Navy



Transcript

It's always a pleasure and I hope that you enjoy yourself in China and let me let us know what's going on over there.
Yeah. Yeah, we can definitely get into that. Everybody hit the like button as you come on because that helps boost the stream in YouTube's algorithm. So, okay,
let's get started. A lot has been happening. So over the last we had Iran clarify through concerted action in the straight of Hormuz turning
back ships stating very publicly directly to the United States that its naval blockade
that has continued is a violation of the ceasefire and therefore the straighter form is not just being the control
that Iran had over the straight of was not really questioned or challenged in this time but Iran essentially said we
are not going to open it up more for additional oil tankers. We are going to keep strict control over and turn back
every single ship that we believe it is deemed hostile andor an important
element to gaining leverage over the United States. Now, , Trump has answered back saying that, , you know,
if, , Iran doesn't stop this and if Iran doesn't come to the table, , he is going to begin once again, ,
threatening air strikes on Iran's infrastructure, its oil infrastructure,
all of its power plants. It's that, you know, he's going to wipe them all away.
We're here again, it seems like at square one. So Iran has answered the US naval blockade with a pretty hard hit
because there was a lot of hopes that the straight of Hormuz was going to be reopened now that there's a ceasefire in Lebanon. That's not happening. The exact
opposite is happening. And Trump, the Trump administration, Donald Trump himself seems to be in a panic going
back to the old threats of wiping out this infrastructure which led to the major increase in energy prices in the
first place. So, Professor Mandi, where are we right now? , your reaction to the developments, especially over the last 24- , which have been, I
think, a shock to the Trump administration and, , the US , power elites at large.
Well, we have to sort of go back a bit just to remind everyone what happened and what is happening.
There was a genocide going on in Gaza and Iran supports the Palestinian people. It is the only country that
supports the Palestinian people. And I mean the and I mean as a state, as a government
otherwise the entire world now supports the Palestinian people. Everyone has woken up to the truth. in in in the
west and included in India. there too the the mood is shifting away
from this genocidal and illegitimate regime. so the United States wants
and wants and wanted and wants to help the is excuse me the Israeli regime
take the region control the region. We saw that from the US ambassador's interview with Tucker Carlson when he
said if Israel takes the entire region then um that's fine with the United States. So, we're facing an expansionist
regime that's genocidal, that's ethnosuppremacist,
that considers itself to be a master race, a chosen people, and everyone else to be subhuman.
And the United States and the West and the Europeans, they fully support this,
the Australians, the New Zealand, and so on.
So, we fast forward and we have a 12-day war where the United States under Trump and the Israeli regime
conspire and they carry out an aggression against Iran, a war of aggression. The West entire the collective West supports it.
The German chancellor says, "The Israeli regime does our dirty work for us. They condemn Iran, the Europeans, for the
Israelis and Americans launched the war and they condemn Iran for the war.
So, but Iran does not strike back at these Arab dictatorships except for once
at Qatar because the Americans Qatar was symbolic of Sentcom. It is it is where Sentcom is. And so after the
Americans bombed Iran, Iran bombed the American base in in Qatar.
But these Arab dictatorships, they've been complicit in conspiring against Iran for decades. I mean, in 1980 when
the West pushed Saddam Hussein to invade Iran, gave him chemical weapons. These family dictatorships in the Persian Gulf funded Saddam Hussein.
And ironically, when the Americans wanted to invade Iraq,
they all helped the Americans invade Iraq and they hosted US forces.
Whereas the Iranians who hated Saddam Hussein, they were opposed to the invasion and they condemned it and so did Hezbollah.
Then these regimes after the Arab Spring, they worked with the CIA to overthrow the only governments that were
opposed to the West, Libya and Syria,
right? Like so the Arab regimes in the Persian Gulf, they didn't, you know, they there was no Arab Spring there.
They spent money to destroy Syria and Libya, two countries that were highly critical of the Western Empire. And of course, al-Qaeda was used in both. first
in Libya and then in Syria, the same al-Qaeda that a decade earlier we we were told carried out 9/11.
o the 12-day war was supposed to finish in
one or two days and Iran was supposed to collapse.
Didn't happen. Iran won the war and we fast forward to this war again. Like
the 12- day war, Iran is negotiating with the United States. The United States is consiring to attack Iran.
Same model all over and over again. supposed to finish in a couple of days.
They begin by slaughtering 168 little girls, Americans,
and a couple of dozen teachers and and um school staff in Minab and carry out atrocities across the country for 40 days with their Zionist allies.
So again, they started the war. Iran did not start the war. They escalated.
They started escalating and targeting critical
infrastructure. They began with bombing hospitals and schools, but then they be started bombing
unfortunately, Professor Mandy, we're having some lag.
Yes. issues. Um can you hear me? Okay.
esolation and then Iran escalated. So every step of the way they escalateated
and every step of the way these Arab family dictatorships were with them.
Professor Martin, can you hear me? Okay.
[clears throat]
8 minutesbecause their territory was used. Without them, this war could not happen with without them.
Right now, the can't attack Iran.
Um, Professor Morandi, can you hear me?
Okay. Hey wage war there's a lot of um Iron without sod
is it me or um I'm hearing I don't I think professor Randi we're having some
I think we're having some audio issues. It's slowed down quite a bit. Um I think it's Yeah, I might be on your
end. I don't know if you're able to you might want to come in and come back out.
that could be something you do and then we can restart. Um but I can um
and I can wait here if you want to reload and I'll be right and I'll be right back. Um and we can I can keep
talking. But yeah, you've completely frozen. Can you
Okay. so profi yeah if you can just reload and yes and I'll bring you back in. So yeah we are dealing with
some connection issues everybody please hit that like button will be back. Um yeah so what person is saying is that
there's a huge context to what is going on now. What is going on is absolutely it it just feels like full circle again.
We are back where we were u not too long ago when Trump and the United States
were threatening to destroy all of Iran's power plants and their bridges,
Iran's bridges, which, you know, ,
10 minuteslet's be honest, is probably not even possible in the short-term sense,
meaning that this would have to be a major long war. And we know what happened last time. The Trump administration threatened this and it
was a massive spike in the oil prices and a massive problem for the global economy as a whole. And I know President
Ronnie and I have been talking about what the global ramifications of this are, which is the potential for a worldwide global economic recession,
which would only make it even harder for the United States to supposedly accomplish whatever objectives it sees
in its head as worthwhile pursuing in this war, mainly the destruction of the
um Iranian government and the Iranian state. so that's
that's kind of where we are now and you know first Marty has not come back just yet. So I'm just going to check something real quick. Here we go.
He is coming back now. Um and hopefully we can just get started again. So thanks so much for your patience. Um
yeah, but in any event this is all being spurned by the fact Oh, here we go. I see Professor Mart in the backstage. Let's bring him back in.
Professor, welcome back.
Sorry, Danny. Well, thank you. No, it's okay. I think the closer we get to war,
the the worse the internet connection become becomes. Um, right.
Yeah. So I was saying that throughout you know so yeah the so these Arab I don't know where I got cut off but in the 1980s these Arab family
dictatorships they supported Saddam Hussein against Iran alongside the West and then they
helped the West overthrow Libya and Syria during the so-called Arab Spring and all these dictatorships that were pro- West remained in place using
al-Qaeda literally a decade after 911.
U then of course we but when the Americans struck Iran with the Israelis and the Americans Iran only struck and
not and only the American base during the 12-day war but in this war the Americans have been using their territory
their airspace their bases not just American bases but their bases their civilian infrastructure their
ports against Iran So they're waging war against Iran.
So Iran was striking the Israeli regime a day, day and night for 40 days. Their American assets and then
gradually when they started striking Iranian civilian infrastructure repeatedly like critical
infrastructure, Iran began to retaliate against critical infrastructure where the Americans and the Europeans had shares in these countries.
So, so now without these family dictatorships, this war is not possible.
It's just not doable.
They need their airspace. They need their air bases. They need their land
to wage war. So, what is going to happen as soon as the Americans strike?
Iran is going to strike back. They'll strike back and strike back hard.
And from the from where I'm viewing things, I think that will we are finally going to
reach the point where the world moves towards a global depression
because I do not see at all. I don't see it one even the slightest the slightest
14 minuteschance that Iran will sub to accept US demands and I do and I have no doubt that the
United States will not be able to defeat Iran but what the United States will probably do is that it will try to devastate the country and which is just
shows how genocidal the United States is. It just shows how genocidal the collective w is because Trump has been making genocidal statements about Iran
for many days now for weeks. It wasn't just about wiping out the civilization of the Iranian people. He spoke about
obliterating Iran. He told spoke about taking Iran back to the stone age. We never saw any outrage in the Western
media. We didn't see any of these mainstream western journalists outraged by these these calls or these
threats to wipe out the country. We never saw anything. Not from the Guardian, not from the Times, not from the New York Times, not for from the um
Breitbart, from none of them. What we did see, Danny, and I don't know if you saw this, was that when the Iranian
delegation was going to Pakistan, the Washington Post put up an editorial
saying that that the um negotiators should be murdered. They put up an
opinion piece, the Washington Post. So the media, the journalists in the west are competing with the state to, you
know, to promote crimes against humanity, war crimes. Just like in Lebanon, you see Western journalists in
Beirut who are a bunch of criminals. they talk about Hezbollah strongholds
and Hezbollah bases where everyone knows that they're bombing towns. Right now, as we speak, they're blowing up villages in the south and the areas that
they've occupied. The Israeli regime. So just just homes, people's homes. They're flattening it to make it look like Gaza.
This is how monstrous they are. And this is how monstrous Western journalists in Beirut are. I spoke to two of them. They contacted me for to get, I don't know,
an opinion, like a a sentence or two.
Not a sound bite, , but u I think for like written. It may have been a sound bite bite. I don't know. But in any case, and I told both of them, why are
you why do you write strongholds? Why do you write um Hezbollah targets? And both of them
separately said more or less the same thing that it wasn't us, it was our editor. I told them both you're you're both you're you're complicit. I told both of them that you're complicit. ,
it's in your name. So, you're a war criminal just like your editors, just like the owners of your media outlets,
and just like a Netanyahu. There's no real difference between any of you because you're part of the apparatus that helps enable these crimes.
So, the Wall Street Journal, I mean,
sorry, the Washington Post was calling for the assassination of the negotiators while they were in Pakistan. And on the
flight back to Iran, we all felt that there was a very good chance that our plane would be shot down. So,
um, we are now where we are and it's unclear what will happen. I don't know if what the Iranian decision will be
about sending a negotiating team. Um but I think that the chances for a major
war are close and I think that if that happens then the infrastructure of the Persian Gulf
will be destroyed and we're heading towards the hot season. In other words,
people will have to evacuate all these countries, the Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar,
Bahrain, and and many parts of Saudi Arabia because they will no longer have if they don't have if they start
targeting our critical infrastructure like power plants, Iran will have no no
choice but to retaliate because these countries are part of the war and the United States uses these countries. So Iran will destroy their electrical power
plants which are much easier to do for the Iranians because the Iran's power plants are spread out all over the country. Theirs are they're they're
few and large and when they're destroyed it the the Persian Gulf region becomes very hot and very humid. It starts
getting very hot and very humid from about a month from now. So it's not going to be a place where people can live. The countries will collapse. I
think that oil and gas and petrochemicals and helium and all that that we should
just forget that they exist in this part of the world for the next few years and the the world economy will crash.
Yeah. I know that's that's a very you know dark picture you paint but one that now
we have at one point we could say well this is quote unquote hypothetical but we've
already been at war. I mean the United States and Iran have already been at war and we've saw Iran's response. It was very measured but it was severe and it
was it had an escalation ladder to it. so it's what you're saying should
be I mean people shouldn't doubt your predictions anymore given everything that has happened and and so you
know professor Mandi you know all of this has come or at least the latest
round of I think a break from this movement toward so-called
negotiations it's all come from the United States. The United States still in right as Iran did a goodwill
gesture around the Lebanon ceasefire saying it would begin the process of giving permission to more tankers to
come through the straight of for moves easing some of the pressure.
Let me explain that. Let me explain that please. What happened was Iran and the United States ultimately through
messages and then indirect talks they negotiated the ceasefire through they didn't negotiate the only
time that Iran and the United States negotiated was during the day that Dr.
the head of parliament met Vance before and after that there have never there have been no negotiations no one should be mistaken all of this done has been
done through messages now what happened was that there was a ceasefire why was there a ceasefire in initially the
Americans Trump was saying unconditional surrender then that didn't work out then they said Iranian missiles and drones are running
out that didn't happen Iranian firepower increased Ultimately the United States put forward I think on day 34 maybe or
36 I don't remember put out that 15 point plan Iran rejected it then Iran put out its own 10-point plan and Trump
accepted it he accepted to negotiate had to have the negotiations it to be the focus of the
negotiations and of course Trump didn't do that because he's dishonest and that's something that the Iranians expected but in any case that's what led
to the se to the ceasefire that the Americans had to evolve their position to accept the Iranian 10-point plan which is a very reasonable plan for the
basis of negotiations then the ceasefire in the ceasefire it was there was
supposed to be an end to the fighting especially in Lebanon because the the fighting was very heavy there
the prime minister of Pakistan said Lebanon is a part of the ceasefire and then Netany Netanyahu went and carpet bombed Lebanon.
He carpet bombed it, slaughtering people, hundreds of people in in . Just women and children and
ordinary people in in all neighborhoods resistance
proionist neighborhoods where you have the Lebanese forces and other sinister groups funded by the West.
Why? Because Netanyahu did not want the ceasefire. So Iran was supposed to open up the straight of Hormos to unfriendly ships. Because why unfriendly ships?
Because these five regimes they are part of the war. So Iran allowed
um Professor Mandi. Unfortunately, the um
audio again is cutting out. If you can hear me. Um I can hear you. Okay.
Okay. Good. Good. Good. I just wanted to see if I could if I interrupted a bit. It's destabilized. So, yes, I think it has.
Okay. So,
so Iran said that it will allow more ships to exit the straight of hormones,
including ships from unfriendly countries. Who are the unfriendly countries? The American the countries that hosted US bases.
the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bah.
So these extra ships were about to go and then the Israelis basically tore up the ceasefire by
slaughtering the Palestinian the the Lebanese. And so Iran stopped and for 10 days Iran said, "We're not allowing
these ships to go until there's a ceasefire because that's part of the deal."
So the string of hormones was never closed.
It it was only ships that were hostile to Iran that couldn't go. So Chinese ships, Iranian ships, Iraqi ships,
Russian ships, they can go back and forth. But these five countries that were complicit and are complicit in aggression, they couldn't. But here they
agreed to let some of them go. But but Netanyahu wrecked the ceasefire. So for 10 days, Iran kept the straight of
hormones um you know restricted until finally the Israeli regime was forced to accept the ceasefire. 10 days
10 days of keeping the straight of hormones like it was put a lot of pressure on the United States. Then on the then Netanyahu
almost accept was being forced to accept. He he refused to do so. Iran made a further threat that it would strike Israel. The next day, Netanyahu
accepted. As soon as Netanyahu accepted the ceasefire, even though he's bombed destroying buildings across southern
Lebanon right now in a violation of the ceasefire, and he killed someone soon after the ceasefire with a drone,
Iran allowed the straight of hormones to open. But 3 or 4 days earlier
during that 10day period when Netanyahu was violating the ceasefire, the
Americans imposed a a siege on Iranian ports. So the Iranians opened up the port then.
But Trump said, "I'm I'm preserving the siege." Right?
So Iran said, well, if you're going to preserve, if you're going to keep the siege in place, that's a violation of the agreement,
that's a violation of the ceasefire. So we are going to again go back to restricting ships from leaving the
straight of Hormos. So the ceasefire was first violated by the Israeli regime and then it was violated by the Trump
regime. And that's why the global energy crisis is growing
worse and worse by the minute because of their actions. Trump could have yesterday when Iran the after sorry
after Netanyahu accepted the ceasefire the day before yesterday when Iran said okay now these ships can go through the
straight of Hormos he could have lifted the the siege on the on the U ports
and that would have been a good offramp but he chose to do the opposite he chose to escalate and that means that the we
are heading towards war and of course today he's been making genocidal threats again and so where we are where we are.
Yeah. Well, according to Tasnim Iranian media person there reports that Iran is indeed refusing or
rejecting talks while the US naval blockade continues and until it is lifted at least these are the initial
reports it's not going to happen. Of course, things are subject to change in the coming hours and days, but the
c the ceasefire so-called ceasefire deadline for Mandi is soon on the way too. So that's another element to this is the US has only escalated during
this time um and has treated talks similarly to how it's treated talks with Iran for quite a long time now which is
to use them as a another tool to build up and eventually engage in war.
But the Iranian you know the Iranian military and the IGC, they're saying that and we talked about this before we came on that they are
producing and building and developing missiles and drones at a faster rate than they were before February 28th before the war started. So,
, talk about what kind of preparations then are being made and how how is it that Donald Trump
28 minutesin his true social post, he's reacting to a development, this allegation that Iran fired on an Indian tanker as
the basis for increasing the level of threats despite all of the consequences that are going to come
should strikes occur, should the US make good on its threats. Why do this? I mean, why why do this now? What's your thoughts on all of this? [snorts]
Well, the plan was escalation. After all, we wouldn't be here. First of all, if Netanyahu had abide, if he
had accepted the ceasefire instead of slaughtering Lebanese citizens and when he was finally forced to
stop, if Trump had lifted the siege after Iran had opened up the straight
of foremost to hostile shipping, then we wouldn't be here at all. There would be no reason to hold force ships to go
back. But when Iran saw that he was imposing an embargo, a siege, he was preserving it, then Iran told ships to
stay in the Straight of Hormos. A couple of ships tried to ignore Iranian demands and they were met with force. Iran fired
at them, but they weren't really seriously damaged. They didn't fire missiles or anything at them, and they quickly went back into the Persian Gulf.
But um you're right, the the Iranians have been preparing for war since the ceasefire. I posted um footage of um the
commander of Iran's missile force. He was visiting a factory and I I've said this before and we've been saying it for
years and you know the analysts in the west like to ignore what we say and therefore they always miscalculate.
But we've been saying that Iran's underground missile bases are untouchable. They can't be touched by the Americans or the Israeli regime and
its drone bases. The the same is true for them. And Iran's factories that produce key weapons are all underground,
too. So, the footage that I posted is of an underground base, but also it shows a place where they're assembling missiles has no shortage of missiles and drones.
And if the US and the reason is, as we discussed multiple times, the reason is because Iran has been preparing for a an
a war against it by the Americans ever since 9/11. Ever since they the United States invaded Iraq and Afghanistan.
Remember what Wesley Clark said that the general told him they want to invade seven countries.
You hear me?
Yeah, I can hear you. You You're getting cut off and it's such a such a convenient time as you're about to explain. seven countries in five years that Yes. You were talking about Yeah.
Continue. Yes.
Yeah. So Wesley Clark said that a general told him that they were going to take seven countries in 5 years
and a lot of people assisted the Americans and the Israelis, the Americans in doing
that. They helped undermine Libya. They undermine Syria and they all were playing useful idiots for the empire.
I mean if if we look at them as not being assets then they were useful
idiots. So all these six countries are gone but not in 5 years but in 25 years.
Now the last country remains and that's Iran the the the crown jewel but Iran is
has been preparing itself since then and even before but since then especially because the threats became more direct.
32 minutesThe United States surrounded Iran. They took Iraq, Afghanistan. They had bases across the Persian Gulf.
Turkey as a part of NATO.
So, the Republic of Azarbaan, a client regime.
So, the Iranians, they developed these missile capabilities, but they've also prepared themselves for land war.
And this is and just as the Americans are mi miscalculated about Iran's missile and drone capabilities, they are going to
miscalculate when they carry out the land offensive. The Iranians will let them probably take some land, some
islands, and then they will start hitting them and they will go on and continue to
strike and strike and strike for days and weeks and months and then Hegath will go on TV and say they're running
out of missiles, they're running out of drones and it's about to finish and it's all over. And CNN, you know, even the opposing media as in the 40-day war and
in the 12- day war, they say yes, we're winning. They'll show footage of all the destruction. They'll probably be like during the 48 day war, mostly decoys
because Iran deployed at least tens of thousands of decoys during the months
before this war. And the Americans have and the Israelis have destroyed many thousands of decoys, airplanes,
helicopters,
launchers, air defenses, all fake. And they even they're really good. They even give off heat. a lot of most of them
I think are Chinese, but there are some Iranian. I don't know how much of it's Iranian, how much of it Chinese, but they're quite good. But in in any case,
just as Iran is has been prepared has prepared itself with missiles and drones, it has prepared itself for the
34 minutesland war. The geography of Iran is not it's it's mountainous.
The terrain is rugged. Iran has underground bases across the the
south of the country. It's navy is largely untouched. Those number of sh
naval ships that were in port that were you know damaged. they'll be repaired but therefore like patrolling the seas.
They're not for war. They destroyed one ship that was unarmed. there was in a international maneuver which was a crime
what they did but the other but the the real naval assets that are will be used for war underground tunnels Iran's air
forces in underground tunnels Iran's air defenses are in underground tunnels I've posted images of all of these before footage so that people would know but
again they ignored in the west so when this ground attack begins Iran will Iran will be ready and We'll hear propaganda
about how fantastic the US is doing, but after a week or two, it'll become clear that it's not going to go well. And then
there's the issue of striking Iranian infrastructure. If they strike Iranian infrastructure, Iran has no choice but to strike back. Iran will strike back the Israeli regime and American assets.
But those regimes that are complicit, they cannot escape retaliation.
They cannot pretend to be neutral when they're killing Iranians. They're full partners in this. They are full partners. And in a month from now, as I
said, it's going to get be begin to get very hot in the Arabian Peninsula. So, people are going to have to leave.
They're going to have to drive to Iraq or to Jordan. These countries,
especially the tiny ones, they won't last. So, what Trump is doing is he's going he's pushing an economic crisis
fast forward. He's making this economic crisis worse by the hour. And I think
in the coming days we're going to see we're going to see a catastrophe unfold unless Trump backs down. But he he's not
the sort of person who so far has shown himself as being capable of taking an offramp. He could have done that when
the Iranians, as I as we discussed earlier, , eased the passage, allowed
more ships to go through the passageway of the Persian Gulf. Yeah, you could have done that then.
Yeah. Yeah. And um this blockade which as many on this show have noted is has a has a huge farcical nature to it given
the range of the area of operation that the US Navy is conducting it in.
all of that is to say is that there's a lot of room to just stop this to go
back to what already was a pretty disastrous status quo which is having already fought you know several over
a month of war and come out of it only with a global economy and tatters a military that's a a military apparatus
that's over spent and an Iranian government and Iranian society that is much more united before and an
element to this professor M the two things are kind of happening at the same time I feel like you have this high morale in Iran right now both with the
people and of course I'm hearing you can confirm this for me I'm hearing that there millions of people signing up to
volunteer should there be any kind of ground operation should there be any need forces um you know in addition to those who
are you know operating the air defenses and operating the missile systems And then there's the you know other
side of this which is the Trump administration also is saying that in the coming days as they're talking about negotiations in Pakistan the coming days
the United States Navy is going to start boarding Iranian vessels that Iranian vessels that are sailing through not only the straight of horm but out out of
it um and back into it are going to be boarded which is a major escalation especially with a country that you're already at war with or already had been in active war with before the ceasefire.
And you have this element, if you could comment on it, the Baba Mendep straight,
which Yemen for a few days now has said they're waiting for the right time and they are ready whenever that right time comes to close the Babe Strait, which
would be a major blow to the already burnt and overheated global economy from this war. So, you know,
your reactions to these things because these are additional I feel like elements to what already is, I think, a catastrophic situation that is
confronting especially the US side of things, US empire side of things. It's it's it's very I guess it's very
damning um to say the least. Your thoughts?
Well, if the United States starts porting ships, Iran has all sorts of ships in the Persian Gulf that it can
board too. And remember, these ships hold
material or or energy or assets that largely belong to these five countries
that are complicit in the war and that and which without these countries would not have been able to happen.
So Iran will retaliate.
It's not going this is not going to end well for anyone and it's definitely not going to end well for the empire.
So you know the they can board a few ships here and there and steal Iranian grain or steal assets of the Iranian
people but the Iranians will be forced to retaliate. And the Persian Gulf is stacked with ships right now
full. I mean if you look at the images they're just right be one after another and of course if the war if there's a
restart of the war and then attacks are launched on infrastructure those ships will all be destroyed too just like the
the other infra I mean just like the in oil and gas and other infrastructure it's it's just you know madness
it's like the United States is run by madmen who are either utterly compromised or it's just the Zionist
first people who are in full control and they don't care about the United States or the global economy or the Indian economy or the German economy or the
Argentinian economy or anything like that. They just care about the Zionist regime and its expansionist policies and
its genocidal policies and so it's willing to sacrifice everyone. There's just no good scenario here. The only
the only thing that we see if we look ahead at at the way things are going now is utter destruction. And this is all
just to to help the Israeli regime. It's all about the Israeli regime. It's all about Zionism. The the the collapse of
the global economy is seems to be coming about why because of Israel.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean that that appears to be the case and you know professor
Mandi there is a deep I think contradiction occurring. You know recent
polls are showing that not some 20% of Americans support how Donald Trump has
handled the Iran situation. And yet you have the Trump administration continuing onward with this. You have of
course Israel. You know Israel interestingly enough because of the cessation of the you know both
sides of direct strikes on Iran because that has stopped. Israel has tried to fade into the background and of course
um focus a lot of its attention on Lebanon and Hezbollah. But nonetheless,
it does appear that Israel, despite not having the ability to fight any of this
on its own, is placing a lot of pressure on the United States to continue this. Um so yeah, your thoughts,
they're killing they're killing people in Gaza every day. They're sniping kids.
just a couple of days ago a girl in class I I think they just sniped her as she was sitting among her classmates.
This is this is the Israeli regime and in the West Bank they continued to batter and beat and kill these
colonizers continue to batter beat and kill Palestinians. I mean it's not just Lebanon. Lebanon right now
they're blowing up village after village and of course we had this the slaughter that Iran forced them to stop but
it's it's you know what they're doing in Lebanon is ongoing what they're doing in Gaza is ongoing and what they're doing in the West Bank is on
Yeah. Yeah. And the all of that is ongoing and we are now on the
precipice of another round of you know it's just so it's just so blatantly
obvious that um we're kind of coming back full circle to where we were just February 28th after the initial strikes.
we're coming back to threats which then led to strikes which then led to Iran's response itself which caused a
huge amount of damage to the region to the regional actors involved in all of this and the United
States itself. So this a repeat of this though I imagine would have a
cumulative effect. Um you said that you believe that a great depression is coming. How does that square with a
kinetic war though? I you know in the past there was only one time I believe where there was a real depression
occurring at the same time as a major nation a a confrontation between nations
and that was World War II. there was a depression happening and the depression was not over when World War II started and it had a major
impact on the outcome of that war. so your thoughts on how the you
know the infusion of an economic disaster that is still building and still there and and will be pushed to
45 minutesthe edge if the US starts again. um how that will affect the outcome because that economic depressions affect
everybody but Iran has been in the position of being mainly iced out of the and keep kept out of a large part of
this global economy and has had to even mainstream media, think tanks, all of them have had to acknowledge has essentially developed a pretty
self-sufficient economy potentially prepared to also take blows that the global economy hits likely the US is
not in that position. So your your thoughts on this?
Well, there's no doubt that the war has caused significant damage to Iran, but Iran is a huge country also.
Um and a future war will create more damage. But what what the damage that's being done to the global economy is not
something that happens within seconds like when a missile strikes a building and the building comes down. When the
when the right now we're seeing the tip of the iceberg and it the tip of the iceberg is the rising energy costs and
rising food costs that we're seeing here and there. Some places it's worse, some places it's not as bad for a host of reasons because of the supply chains,
because of the fact that some countries don't have reserves, some countries have different needs than other countries. But in any case, it
is it is getting worse. But we are going to reach a point where within some they some say and I I again I I don't have
I'm not a I can't be certain of this but it is said that within the next two weeks we're going to have a new
the the the crisis is going to reach a new level and then within four weeks it's going to become a fullblown crisis and so we're just as
47 minutesI said we're right now we're witnessing the tip of the iceberg, but when it hits, it's like an atomic bomb. It's
like multiple atomic bombs because factories will shut down. A missile is not going to hit the factories, but those factories will no longer be
functioning. Economies will be shutting down. And again, this and and agriculture will be badly affected.
We'll probably have global hunger. will probably have tens of millions of people if not more on the move.
I mean imagine if you if countries begin to face food crisis, people will move and they'll go to the traditional places
that they used to go to and even though those places will be on the verge of collapse too. I mean the the the way in
which the world is going to be impacted by what the Israeli regime and Trump have are doing
is
person I'm just gonna interrupt just because Oh yeah. Okay. I think you're back. I think when I interrupt you actually come back. So that's a good
thing. That's a good thing. Yeah. You were saying that the impact of this and then you kept Yeah. kept going.
Yeah. So the impact of this is going to be beyond anyone's imagination.
Hunger, factories shut down, businesses shut down,
unemployment across the world, in the West and the the global majority. people will be on the move in probably the tens of millions.
It's just mindboggling. And all of this is being carried out because a genocidal regime is ordering
the United is forcing the United States to launch war. It that this genocidal regime with US support launched a war against Iran and lost 12 days.
Even though it carried out a blitzkrieak attack, it had full US support. It lost that war in 12 days. It's it's just not capable of fighting a war against Iran.
So now the United States has got to come in. They fought for 40 days. They failed. And now they're saying, "No, we have to go and wipe out the civilization.
Wipe obliterate the country. Send them back to the stone age." And again,
instead of being outraged, outlets like the Wall Street Journal, sorry, the Washington Post say, "Assenate the negotiators."
This is this is what we're today dealing with in the west. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, personally,
I'm in China and I talked to I'm I know he's I think a mutual contact of yours too, John Weii. And he you know, he
was very clear um and you know, usually what John Wei says is a very informed type of clarity. And he was he's very
clear that you know, a lot has been made of China and Iran. And recently there's been rumors that China was the was a
major player in pushing Iran to the ceasefire table and and to agree to the ceasefire and he said no he does
not believe that that happened at all and that actually um China's position is that of course it
doesn't want to see instability. doesn't want but at the same time it is not afraid of the consequences of
what is going on here and won't interfere with that which is a general principle of China you know for
every kind of conflict and every war that occurs in the world but um with that it seems like that's also angered
the United States because what has Trump always done during his tenure this time around. He's looked at both China
and Russia and said, "You need to help me solve things." You know, Russia, you need to help me solve the Ukraine
conflict, which you know, I am the, you know, the major party to the US is the major party to the reason why it's even
happening. And of course, he always looks to China. China, you need to help solve Ukraine. You need to help solve this and that problem for us or we're going to tariff you or this kind of
thing. And now it seems like the target is okay, we need to hit Iran. We need a wage war on Iran. And oh yeah, we we'll
we'll reveal what the real motive here is too, which is to try to cut off the entirety of the multipolar world with of
course China being one of the if not the most important economic pillar of this. So your thoughts on the global
ramifications of where we are now, how especially outside of the region, how
this is set to impact the multipolar world, Iran with its you know biggest
friends China and Russia and where all of this stands to fall on on the multiple world and some say it benefits,
some say it It hurts, but I think the picture is pretty nuanced and complex. So, your thoughts on this?
, oh, you were muted. Hold on one second, President Randy. , starting.
No, that was Sorry, that was me. That was me.
I did it on purpose to So, um I thought it would help the connection. So
I think it's going to be devastating for the global economy, for majority and the west. No one is going
to be spared from this catastrophe. But I do think it's going to bring an end to the empire.
Already I think this is a turning point and the United States has succeeded in destroying its
its image over the past two and a half years, its credibility. It's shown itself to be military incapable and
people are shocked across the world that Iran was able to stand up to the United States in this way including in China.
Many of my Chinese friends and colleagues and people who are experts
in the field in China during the past few weeks have been telling me that in China that their views of Tehran have
evolved completely because people across the world were influenced by western narratives on Iran. They, you know, they
believe the nonsense that the the so-called regime, as they love to say in the West, is unpopular, that it's imploding, that it's corrupt, that its
leaders were hated, and and so on. You know, all the narratives that we've been hearing for it's anti-woman, it beats kids. I don't know. I don't know. Cuts
54 minuteswhat was it that Trump said? He cuts kids in half or, you know, exactly the thing that the Israelis do. You know, he was saying that they cut kids in half or
something like that. I know that this psychopath something barbaric. Yeah.
Yeah. So anyway, so so a lot of people influenced by western think tanks
and western media and western officials thought that Iran would would fall. And
when it didn't, everyone was shocked and surprised. And people across the world have been contacting me contacting me.
I' I've been overwhelmed with with with speaking with people across the world with media. I'm just, you know, I'm
running right now. And um but but the point is that people are fascinated
about Iran. They want to know more about Iran. That's why on all these shows I've been there there's not much material out there for people to read. And I said on
55 minutesyour show and on other shows to read going to the the book by the leates and people are interested in about Imam
Hussein about Ashur about Iran's history about Iranian civilization
interest towards Iran Hezbollah the axis of resistance has grown and contempt contempt for Zionism and for Israel and
for Trump and sadly the United States even though most Americans are opposed to this madness. but
contempt for the United States is is growing. That is not good news. None of that is good news for for an empire. And ultimately when the when the glo when
the global economy collapses, people are going to remember who brought it about.
It is the Israeli regime and the United States just like they were the ones along with the West that brought about the genocide in Gaza that ena enabled
the genocidal acts in Lebanon, brought about the destruction of Syria and the the rise of al-Qaeda and all that. They
56 minuteswill remember that their own lifestyles were infinitely impacted or heavily impacted by by
a Zionist regime that was willing to destroy the global economy so that it could just carry out so that it could just wipe out people and take their land.
Yeah. And our last couple minutes here professor Mandi it is very clear in this very large country that I'm in the largest really the largest country
in the world especially economically um that nobody thinks that the US is winning nobody you know and everyone you
know everyone that I've spoken to is very much um there's no
antipathy toward Iran and there's a lot of there's surprise But there's I think yeah there's there's a lot of like
awe over how Iran has done this and you know I think Iran did something that's very difficult to do in this day
and age which is to you know in China Dang Xiaoping said you know hide your strength and bide your time and Iran
had done that to a shocking level like a shocking and a in a time period where it's very hard especially when you have
entire entities colonial entities like Israel and the United States as a you know imperial albatross um invest so
much money in intelligence, so much money on spying, so much money infiltration, so much money and in and time on all of that. And still Iran,
they admit it. They they were surprised.
They didn't know this was going to happen. Hell, even Hezbollah, which is right next door to Israel, is what did Israel say when Hezbollah entered
the war? Oops. We were so surprised that they could hit so hard. We had no idea that they had this kind of artillery,
that they had this kind of missile systems. No idea. And now they do. But the resilience behind that that which is
the real thing, the the resistance, the resilience of the axis of resistance, I think is the most extraordinary thing.
If you have I mean the weapons still don't compare to what the empire has. But if you you know but you can have even
better weapons but still if you don't have the resilience, the resistance, the the motivation, the faith, then they will all fail you.
Yep. Yeah. And you know and and that's that seems that's seemingly where we are now. And
your final thoughts because yeah this is a real inflection moment. We're probably, you know, we'll probably talk again soon, , depending on what
happens in the coming days. , it seems like the United States is in a really bad, it's a really bad state. This is probably
[clears throat] in a terms of a direct war where the US cannot help but be ,
very directly involved and climb an escalation ladder like this because Iran has been able to defend itself and stand up to each and every single blow that
it's tried to land. Um it seems like an unprecedented moment and as you said before the show, the
world will change. Any thoughts? Or the world will change incredibly. So um your final thoughts as we close out here.
Well, I don't know what will happen in the days ahead. The United States may strike tonight. That's just how they do things like the Israelis. But um and and
we may not have electricity or I may have problems with the internet or
other problems. So um I you know my what I basically would like people to
remember is that we're all responsible and we h all have to be active and we all have to stand up against this evil empire and Zionism.
And I think that while it looks very bad right now for the world but we all
1 hourhave to keep pushing and it's not just the axis of resistance that has to
resist. It is the broader resistance that exists across the globe. boyc
whether it's boycots of goods or whether it's protests or whether it's putting
pressure on local governments to halt cooperation or to halt purchasing goods or to to distance themselves from the
empire. we all responsible to do whatever it is that we can do but we have to remain optimistic and no one
should feel guilty for what their government does as long as they are doing the right thing.
Yeah, I think that's a great note to end on. indeed you know we are
in a moment where I think the mask is off the United States as the empire with who controls it. You know the Epsian
class, the oligarchs, the elite um this kind of trans I guess you call transnational Zionist you know
imperial um you know wararm mongers. They are in desperate straits and yeah we we
truly do not have control over especially those of us in the west over what they do. What we have control over
is how we try to change that fact and and that is I think going to be a
huge point of contention and something we will have to reckon with in the days and weeks to come. So everybody presandi joined. We did really good here
despite me having no VPN right now because the VPN companies are absolutely in complete crisis. I have a
suspicion it's the war that it's the consequence the economic consequences of this war that actually have these companies. The dates are very
2 minutessuspicious. April 8th was when it seems like it seems like a lot of these companies have cut made major cutbacks and say they have outage issues
everywhere. And that's my my hunch. But nevertheless, I think we're going to see major impact on all industries everywhere should this continue. So,
first Randi, thanks so much for joining.
We're going to head out together. I want to thank everyone who gave a super chat.
They were very generous. Especially thanking First Randy who we want to see him at home. So, do your part everybody. Look, he's at home right now.
He doesn't have to be in hiding because the US is bombing his country. So, be sure to not only hit the like button,
support this show. um you know in the video description. But you know, of course, keep coming back and keep you
know, fighting the good fight and keep raising your voices and doing what you can to put pressure in order
to make this all stop one way or another. All right, everybody. Hit the like button before you go. first Randy is still here, I believe, but his camera just went circle circle circle.
So that's our cue. Bye-bye. Peace out. See you again soon.

[admin]

Jack Matlock [97 YEARS OLD]: How NATO Expansionism Broke European Security
Glenn Diesen
Apr 19, 2026

Jack F. Matlock, Jr, was the U.S. Ambassador to the USSR, 1987–1991, and had a key role in negotiating an end to the Cold War. Ambassador Matlock discusses misunderstandings about the Cold War, the West’s promise to Moscow that NATO would not expand, NATO expansionism undermining the pan-European security architecture, and how NATO became an offensive alliance and provoked the war in Ukraine.



Transcript

Welcome back. We are joined today by Jack Matlock, the US ambassador to the Soviet Union, who contributed greatly to negotiate an end to the Cold War with President Reagan in the late 1980s. So thank you very much for taking the time, sir.

Glad to be with you. Thanks for having me on.

So I'm a big fan of your books, your work, and also your contribution to diplomacy and history. It's quite impressive. Based on your work, I thought a good place to start would be from your perspective, what are the main misunderstandings about the end of the cold war?

I think there have been several serious misunderstandings among most of the commentators. First of all the idea that the cold war ended with the break-up of the Soviet Union is incorrect. The cold war was over ideologically and practically at least two years before the Soviet Union broke up. And second, the idea that there were winners and losers in the cold war, that the United States and the West won, and Russia lost, is quite incorrect. We negotiated an end to the cold war to the interests of both countries, and everybody else for that matter. And that was negotiated in without victors. That occurred because Gorbachov actually abandoned what had been the ideology that had caused the cold war in the first place, and that is the communist ideology which was totally incompatible with our political system and ways of life in the west. The idea was that there was going to be a worldwide proletarian revolution which would bring about a society that first was socialist, but would become communist, and that the state would actually wither away. Of course, what happened in the Soviet Union, and the other communist countries, was that the state took control of everything, and instead of what they called in a socialist system a state or condition of state monopoly capitalism, that was being abandoned.

Now at the same time, Gorbachov was trying to bring the Soviet Union into the European system. And I remember that when we were negotiating on such issues as German unification, and by the way we assured him that if he allowed Germany to unite on the terms that West Germany had set, that there would be no expansion of NATO to the east.
Even earlier, when President Bush and Gorbachov met in Malta, and announced the end of the Cold War officially, one of the conditions was that the Soviet Union would not use force in Eastern Europe to preserve the system there, and the United States would not take advantage of that. And that was announced in writing. As a matter of fact, President Bush reiterated that commitment in a letter to Gorbachov that I delivered when we got back from that meeting. So the idea that the cold war was a defeat for the Soviet Union, or that the the Soviet Union broke up because of the pressure of the Western Alliance, are simply incorrect. The Soviet Union broke up because of internal pressures, and probably would not have broken up if the cold war had been continued. So I think those basic misunderstandings fed many of what I consider the mistakes that were made subsequently.

This promise of an ever-expanding NATO after the German reunification, often becomes a very hot topic in the media. Many politicians and academics, journalists, dispute it. They say such a promise wasn't made, or it was a misunderstanding. But this was made at several occasions though, wasn't it?

Well, the promise was made. It was not incorporated in the treaties. But to go into a little more detail, in February, '89, when Secretary of State Baker came to Moscow, the hot topic then was the question of German unification, because the communist regime had been overthrown in East Germany. And first of all, the United States said, "Alright, we need to negotiate this in what we call the two plus 4 format." And Europeans and others said, "Well, what do you mean?" And we said, "Look, the core issues are between the United States and the Soviet Union. We'll coordinate what we do with our allies, but we have to initially work this out directly with the Soviet Union." And so the idea was that we would try to get an agreement, and then we would refer it to our allies, the other four, who were the victors in World War II. You know, at the end of World War II, there were certain agreements between France and Britain on the one hand, and the United States and the Soviet Union on the other. And some of these gave the Soviet Union rights in Germany and Eastern Europe. And in order to legalize the unification of Germany, we had to have the legal approval of the Soviet Union. So when Baker came to Moscow in February of that year, he proposed to Gorbachov that he think about this. In that sense, he was throwing out the idea that wouldn't it be better to have a United Germany, a member of NATO, than have them cut loose from NATO? And then he began to imply that we would still need to make sure that Germany does not go nuclear, that Germany does not pursue the policies they did before, and we need a NATO for that. And Gorbachov answered that of course any expansion of NATO would be unacceptable. But he understood the points that Baker was making, and he added that it has been the policy of the Soviet Union to try to exclude Europe militarily, but they now understood that some American military presence could have a stabilizing effect. So they were no longer trying to exclude them from Europe. But then he added, "Of course, you don't really need 300,000 troops stationed in Europe to perform that."

Later, in other conversations, when the question of NATO expansion came up, Gorbachov would say, "Well, if you do that, you're going to have to take us, too." I would have to say this was in the background of both sides, in effect calling for the same end. Gorbachov, beginning in a speech in the UN in 1988, said that we have a common European home, which should be without barriers, and so on. And on the other hand our president, and also I think prime minister Thatcher, who was then the prime minister, spoke of a Europe whole and free, and by the end of 1991, the world had a Europe whole and free.

So later, in the '90s, when a new administration began to consider to expand NATO, I not only testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that that would eventually be a catastrophe if we started expanding NATO and continued it, I was joined in that statement by I think more than 30 of the senior people who negotiated the end of the cold war.

Now the reason why was because NATO had been conceived as a defensive alliance in order to make sure that the Soviet Union could not successfully invade Western Europe. There was a great fear that that was their intent. And indeed, if you thought of the Soviet Union, and its then East European allies, they had military forces in quantity that were superior to those in the west. Later, when all the documents became available, it was clear that the Soviet Union never intended to invade the West. Their policy was that if the West started a war, they would respond and try to push to the English Channel. But that was planned as a response to what they would have considered aggression from the West.

But what I'm trying to say now is that the idea of bringing more countries into NATO would turn it from a defensive alliance to an offensive alliance if these forces were used particularly outside Europe. One of the arguments that people for expansion made in the 1990s was out of area, or out of business. In other words, we had to use the NATO alliance militarily outside Europe, or else there was no point to it. People who were not even involved also testified that there was never any agreement regarding expansion.

Now what I say is whether or not there was an agreement, and certainly we were given assurances that we wouldn't expand NATO, but whether or not that is true, it was a huge mistake to start expanding NATO.

Another point I would make is that it was not so much Article Five of the NATO treaty that worried the Russians. I know the Russian ambassador to Washington whom I dealt with many times, when he was deputy foreign minister at the Soviet Union, in the mid 90s, Uliv told me, "Look, we don't worry about your Article Five. We're not going to attack these countries, or any others. What we worry about is bases. If you put your bases there, that is going to be very worrisome to us. And in fact, in the 2+4 agreement, though there was no mention of NATO expansion, there was a provision that the territory of the former East Germany would not be used to base any foreign troops or any nuclear weapons. In other words, what was then accepted in the treaty as NATO expansion.

And let me back up a bit. The fact was that after Baker had returned to Washington, he was told by his lawyers that if East Germany and Germany unite, there's no way you can exclude part of it from the NATO alliance. So a lot of these issues got mixed up. And then NATO in the '90s was used in an offensive way against Serbia. A war was declared against Serbia, which had not attacked any NATO member. In fact, we were extending NATO protection to others, as Yugoslavia began to break up. That was one of the first things that created extreme tensions between the United States and Russia.

Another point I should make is that when people talk about Russia always being aggressive and so on, it was precisely the elected president of the Russian Federation who played the key role in bringing the Soviet Union down, and also he was a firm supporter of Baltic independence, which was declared legally before the Soviet Union broke up.

So in effect, the breakup of the Soviet Union was not something that the west was pressing for. As a matter of fact, although the first Bush administration was firm in supporting the restoration of independence of the three Baltic countries, we actually, for a number of rational reasons, wanted the rest of the Soviet Union to preserve a voluntary federation of the sort that Gorbachov tended to support. So the idea that we brought the Soviet Union down is absolutely the opposite. We were doing our best to support Gorbachov in negotiating a new union treaty to the point that when President Bush, after visiting Moscow, spoke to the Ukrainian Parliament -- they were called the Ukrainian Parliament -- he recommended they enter Gorbachov's Federation, and said that they should avoid suicidal nationalism. But at the time this speech was made, he said that it was meant for all the non-Soviet republics, not just Ukraine. And when he spoke of suicidal nationalism, he was thinking of what was going on in Georgia at that time. But it was clear that the U.S. did not want the Soviet Union to break up at that time.

But events got ahead of things, and certainly by November it was clear that it was probably going to break up. And so the United States, after December 25, when Yeltsin sort of took over in Russia, and with the cooperation of others in the Soviet Union, immediately proposed to recognize their successors, because one of the things that worried us throughout was the proliferation of nuclear weapons. So one of the conditions for recognizing the independence of Ukraine and others was that they relinquish their nuclear weapons. I know this has become an issue later, and most of these were scheduled to be eliminated under arms control treaties we had with the Soviet Union, but as a condition of recognizing their independence, they had to agree to abide by these agreements. In other words, those UK weapons that were in Ukraine, first of all, were never under the control of Ukraine politically, and practically. The codes were in Moscow, and passed on to Gorbachov and Yeltsin. And it is not at all clear that if Ukraine had kept them, that they could have maintained them and and so on.

But in any event, the return of those weapons to Russia, which at first was resisted by the Ukrainian Parliament, was insisted upon by the United States, not because we feared that they would be used against us necessarily, but that this technology would seep out into elements that would use it. And I might add, that is still much more a threat in the future than any government actually using them.

And one of the big issues we had in the 1990s was a cooperative effort to make sure that the nuclear materials, and nuclear weapons in Russia, were first of all reduced, as we had agreed earlier, and second that the materials were secured. That's one of our more successful efforts in the '90s.

Now I wanted to explain that background, because so many people say, "You know, if Ukraine just kept those weapons, Russia would not have attacked them." That was never a practical or political possibility.

Yeah I hear that argument all the time as well. But I think people often forget that in the 1990s a lot of great statesmen, George Kennan, yourself, and others, many were warning against essentially going for NATO expansion instead of pursuing this new panuropean security architecture, though I was wondering why we failed to establish a common European home, as Gorbachov had said, or at least a common European security architecture, because we did have some agreements, like the charter of Paris for a new Europe in 1990, the organization for security and cooperation in Europe set up in '94, based on these principles, all essentially originating from the Helsinki Accords, of how to have a common Europe. Why did we fail?

I think there may have been a variety of reasons, but in fact I think that particularly the United States, but also other western countries, were responding to domestic politics, and in the case of the United States, we have a very large numbers of voters in states like Pennsylvania and Illinois, from Eastern Europe. And they were determined to get these countries in NATO because they traditionally looked at Russia as a threat. And that was one thing that I know politically. And when I testified against NATO expansion, during the intermission, some of the people came up to me and said,"Look be practical. The president needs those electoral votes. The two swing states of Pennsylvania and Illinois, and all those East Europeans, are demanding we go into NATO. So I would say in the case of the United States, it was largely entirely a matter of the internal politics.

But second, you had the growing influence of what we call the neoconservatives, the neocons, those who Reagan and Bush had sidelined. At that time, most were Republicans, but I would say that Reagan was able to sort of sidelined, and ignored their advice. They advised against most of our arms control negotiations. They wanted to continue to use force, and to bring down the system. They were thinking of regime change. Which by the way was something that neither President Reagan nor the first President Bush thought of. I mean, they did not think they were trying to bring down the Soviet Union. Reagan's ideal was communism is a crazy idea, but if that's what the Soviets want, that's their business. What we objected to is them forcing it on other people. So there wasn't an idea that we had a mission to try to change their political system.

What I'm trying to say is that suddenly you had a philosophy being expressed that the United States won the Cold War, and that now it was the sole superpower, and could therefore determine the future of other countries, that there had been two superpowers that ran the world, and now there was only one. And so we were in what they call a unipolar world.

Now there are several things wrong with that. First of all, yes, the United States had much more power, both militarily and in terms of economics than any other country. But military power is power to destroy, not power to build. And the economic system is one which could be responsibly managed to the benefit of everybody, or by more powerful states, turned into a weapon.

Now to my sorrow, beginning in the 90s the United States started to do both, to sanction other countries for things that really had nothing to do with the United States, but for what we considered their behavior internally. And second, by expanding NATO, and then beginning in the 21st century to put bases there, basically violated the whole spirit of what we should have been building. Obviously we should have been building a European security structure, in fact, a world security structure, that included everybody. Afnd what strikes me is that after the second world war, we were wise to insist that France and Germany, who had been antagonists, bury the hatchet, and start cooperating. We were great inspirers, and pushed for what later became the common market. But after the end of the cold war, instead of the break up of the Soviet Union, instead of bringing Russia and the East European countries into a unified security structure, we began actually to treat Russia as a pariah. And I think that spirit was expressed by Secretary of State Madeline Albright, our first woman Secretary of State, when in justifying the war against Serbia, she said, "America stands strong and can see the future." I think this was absolutely incredible hubris. And I would note by the way to those who say we need more women in high politics, yes, we should have leaders, whether they are male or female, on the basis of their merits, but all three of our women secretaries of state have been warmongers, let's face it. So one's sex or gender doesn't necessarily determine one's political opinions or abilities in certain respects.

Yeah, it often cuts a hole in the assumption that women would be more peaceful leaders than men. I think we're all pretty flawed in this regard.

But I also see that the prospect of a hegemonic peace, that is peace through dominance or strength, was very appealing, and contributed to dismantling the work that had been done for panuropean security architecture. But beyond, I guess creating a Europe without the Russians, unavoidably became a bit of Europe against the Russians organized around EU and NATO. Do you see any other mistakes being done in terms of how we could have managed this relationship with Russia? Because it is interesting when everyone reads the memoirs of, for example, the former CIA director Robert Gates, or I mentioned that many relations were mismanaged, and we are now paying some of the consequences of this mismanagement. What do you consider to be the main mistakes being made thereafter?

Well, as we continued to expand NATO, in the first decade of this century, we began putting military bases there. The most sensitive of those as far as Russia was concerned was the establishment of anti-ballistic missiles in Romania and Poland. Now these missiles could be used either offensively or defensively, depending upon the software. So there is no easy way to understand that Putin, the Russian president, would find this threatening. And he made it very clear in a speech in Munich in 2007 how he considered the expansion of NATO, and particularly the plans to place bases there, bases that could practically be used to attack the Soviet Union. Yet we went ahead with this, and later, particularly during the Obama administration, we purposely tried to bring about a western oriented government in Ukraine. And this is something that anyone who knows history should have known was totally unacceptable to any government in Moscow. Just as any expansion of an outside power into the western hemisphere was considered virtually a causus belli by the United States. Yet we continued to do that. And I think this is one of the big issues that weighed upon Putin's mind. And he warned against it publicly, but later we went ahead with it. And at one point, our representatives were bragging that they spent billions trying to determine the government of Ukraine. So later, when a coup d'etat occurred there, I think Russia had every reason, and certainly President Putin, to feel that this had been fueled by the United States and its West European allies, because our representatives openly tried to promote specific candidates in Ukraine, and in fact gained control of Ukraine in 2014.

So this is a very complicated situation. Not only did the US and our West European allies try to determine the internal politics of Ukraine, so that it would in effect be hostile to Russia, something which the United States would have reacted very forcefully to if it had happened to us. I can bear witness to that, because I was in Moscow in 1961 during what we call the Cuban missile crisis. And let's recall what that was all about.

The United States had attempted to invade Cuba unsuccessfully, and Cuba had asked the Soviet Union to supply nuclear weapons. Now, under traditional international law, that was not a violation of international law particularly, since the United States had nuclear weapons poised in Turkey, and also Italy, that could reach the Soviet Union. This was before either of us had intercontinental missiles. These were intermediate range of course. And President Kennedy considered this totally unacceptable, and ordered a quarantine of Cuba. And we came very close to a nuclear exchange. I was sitting in Moscow then, and translating some of Khrushchev's comments, but finally Khrushchev backed down, and agreed to take those weapons out. And Kennedy declared victory, although he had agreed that we would remove the missiles in Turkey, but that could not be publicized. In other words, he forced Khrushchev to make it look as if he had backed down, when in fact there was a deal. But having been through that, it was very clear to me that trying to influence the internal politics of Ukraine against the wishes of Russia was not a good idea, to put it mildly.

And in fact, when NATO declared that someday Ukraine and Georgia would be members, at the United States' insistence -- this was in 2008 -- it was clear to me that this was going to create very great difficulties. So at that time, polls showed that two-thirds of Ukrainians did not want to be in NATO. This country was increasingly divided, and increasingly the politics were pushed by those in western Ukraine, the areas that traditionally had never been part of Russia, but had been in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then in Poland. And I might say that the current borders of Ukraine, which the current government is trying to recover, were borders created by Hitler and Stalin. So the Ukrainians and West Europeans who are supporting this are ironically trying to enforce something created by Hitler and Stalin. Think about that, and think about how that resonates with Russians.

So the issues there are very deep, and I think increasingly tragic. Both countries have followed policies which are not in the interest of their people, and it's difficult to see how this is going to be resolved. But this is where things are now. But I must say that when we look at the causes, the attempts by the United States and its West European allies, to control an area which is absolutely vital to the security of Russia, shis is I think, an important causative factor. And we have reached a point now where it is very difficult to see how that's going to be resolved, so that it doesn't negatively affect all of us.

And in terms of ending the cold war, we see that diplomacy was very important, and we were blessed with having some good statesmen at that point in time. But how do you make sense of the current political leadership across the west, both the US, and Europe, compared to the kind of diplomacy which helped bring an end to the cold war? Because when I look at people today, be it Mertz in Germany, the rhetoric there, or Macron in France, Starmer in the UK, all three of them talking about war with Russia, or Trump in the United States, who is hardly a benign leader himself, how do you make sense of this, and why don't we seem to have diplomacy anymore? I often ask why not one of our political leaders, or even journalists, want to even discuss the security concerns and interest of our opponents. Not just the Russians, but all opponents. It's very confusing. Sorry, that was a very long question, but how do you make sense of the current political leadership?

I can't make sense of it. I can only say that I think that previous norms of diplomacy have simply been abandoned. And we talk about democracy, you know, democracy can mean several things. For one thing, it can be a process that the citizens or resident citizens of a given country uses to determine its government and so on. That's a process. Or you can begin to put labels on countries. Some are democratic, and some are not. I think the labeling can be quite false. The United States is not in the final sense a democracy. We are a republic, and a republic which by any current analysis is run by an oligarchy, an oligarchy which is divided. And yet it is one in which the majority of the people do not decide our policies. And I think that has happened also to some degree in other countries. But the idea that somehow there is a division between democracies and non-democracies, and that it is the duty of the United states to "spread democracy," even if it means changing governments, I think that was very very similar to the idea the Soviet Union had until Gorbachov, that it was the vanguard of the proletariat, and had to support what they call proletarian revolution throughout the world, because socialism in their definition, and communism, was the future of the world. In effect, with just a few changes, we tried the same thing.

Now we used very high flown language. We said that you know human rights are very important, and we need to enforce them. The problem with that is first, it's a misnomer. What we really should be talking about is civil rights. I think that human beings do not enter the world with rights. In fact, they're totally dependent upon other people, and every other mammal is. And I know this is ingrained in a lot of rhetoric, and that should be the fact, that every great civilization defines their values, rights and needs, to understand that is to know that interfering in other countries is going to create great difficulties. So I think the idea that was expressed first by the scholar Fukuyama, that the end of the cold war meant that what they call the west, and democracy, was the future of the world, and it was the duty of the democratic countries to spread it to other countries, I think that was fundamentally a mistaken idea. Not that human rights, as we call them, are not valuable things, but to consider that anybody who doesn't agree with you on that is somehow at fault, gets it all wrong. Because I think that civilizations [of all kinds] have risen and fallen throughout the last few millennia of human history, and to think that there is one formula that fits everybody is fundamentally incorrect. And there's this idea that the United States and the West survived the cold war in better economic shape, and other countries tried to adopt our system. But once they do, we find that the West is actually sanctioning Russia economically, and so on, instead of keeping them in the one world economic system that was created after the end of the cold war. So I think that this feeling of righteousness, has undermined the ability to think straight. Right now I cannot understand how any German government could tolerate the destruction of the Nordstream pipeline. I mean, after this, Germany is not going to be competitive in many ways, because of the high cost of energy, and the misapplication of this policy in Ukraine. And the idea of the West Europeans that Ukraine is a democratic society, simply struggling, Ukraine is one of the least democratic countries in the world, and it has a government that was achieved by a minority. And it is one of the most corrupt.

Now the Ukrainians are not bad. They're wonderful people. I happen to be someone who knows both Russian and Ukrainian. I got my PhD in Slavic languages. And it is tragic the way that West Europeans, and the United States, have been pushing for something which is not in Ukraine's interest. So without going into all the details of [the Ukraine-Russia relationship] I'll say one thing: that when the agreement was made in Minsk in 2015, that in effect Russia, though it had taken Crimea, where the majority of people clearly preferred to be in Russia, that President Putin refused any attempt to bring the Donbos into Russia, and said that Ukraine must return to recognizing the Russian language as having political validity, and to grant amnesty. But France and Germany, who were parties to that, continued to supply military supplies to Ukraine, with forces that attacked the eastern front. So one can say that one of the reasons Russia opposes a ceasefire now is that they had one before, and not only Ukraine, but also Britain and France, violated that ceasefire, by supplying military weapons to Ukraine. And later the former German chancellor said they signed that just to give Ukraine a chance to build up their military. So, I think it is tragic. And I think that President Putin made a horrible mistake when he invaded Ukraine, and I'm not someone who justifies that. But I have to recognize that my own country and NATO illegally attacked Serbia when Serbia had not attacked any NATO country. And then the United States, with some, but not all of the NATO allies, attacked Iraq on fabricated grounds that they had nuclear weapons, when they didn't. We completely occupied the country. Hundreds of thousands of people were probably killed, and it stimulated a revival of the extreme Islamic groups. And then later we had the case of Libya, and yes Gaddafi was a tyrant in many respects, no question about that, and there was a a UN Security Council determination that we should protect the the opponents of Gaddafi in Benghazi, but that was expanded to a war that ended in the assassination of Gaddafi, just as the war in Iraq ended in the assassination of Saddam Hussein. Now these were certainly bad guys in many ways, but it wasn't the responsibility of outsiders to deal with them in a way that brought about internal conditions that were worse for everybody there.

So there was a certain hubris, and a feeling that, "Oh we can do things that others can't," and the idea that by using force, you could topple a government and get something better. It doesn't happen. And one of the great dangers now when people talk about needing regime change in Russia is that if President Putin is removed by force, you are probably going to get something even worse, because there are forces there that are already arguing that Russia has to use its nuclear forces to defend itself. And when the west Europeans start sending weapons to Ukraine that they use to attack Russia, I think already former President Medvedev has said that, you know, we will consider anybody who makes these weapons legitimate targets. And I'm not saying that this is a a good policy or not. I'm just saying I think you have to look at the realitie. And why Germany would be involved again, and be arming rebels in any area that was once part of the Soviet Union, is almost inconceivable, and I can't understand why the current government is doing it.

But let's put this in a broader context. I think right now, in both economic ways and political ways, China is profiting greatly from all of this, because to most of the world they seem to be the only great power right now that is asking for peace, and tending to support it. And I think it is really a catastrophe that we in the west, through our own
hubris and misunderstanding of the situation, are in effect conceding leadership in many of these areas to China. Certainly they're doing a better job of developing alternative energies, and they're increasingly doing a better job engineering and producing things like electric cars and so on. So how we continue to think of wars, and use of the military, to change things, seems to me very irrational.

And in saying this, I'm not endorsing the Chinese government, or the things they do internally. I think that's something that only the Chinese can change if it needs changing.
But the hubris we in the west possess, our superiority over others, seems to lie behind some of this. And I think it is deplorable, and I hope it will chang.

Let me also say that we haven't mentioned the near east, which is dominating many things right now, and all I can say is that I think the recent exchanges between Pope
Leo and the president of the United States show that for once we have a pope that is calling it like it is. There were churches during the Second World War where the Pope did not condemn what was going on. I'm not a Catholic, but right now I do think that our American Pope, the first, is telling the world something it needs to hear.

I very much agree. And that's one of the great tragedies as well that no one is speaking about peace anymore when we are currently engaged in this war with Iran, also war with Russia, and people are talking about a possible war with China. European leaders have sat by for four years while all these hundreds of thousands of people have been dying in Ukraine, and they didn't even pick up a phone to discuss the security architecture, or some way to mitigate the security competition with the Russians. It's quite appalling, and grotesque really. But hopefully we'll be turning a corner.

Anyways, Ambassador, thank you so much for taking the time. I think I've already taken a bit too much of your time, so I very much appreciate it.

Thank you for having me on and for listening.

[admin]

Trump announces seizure of Iranian ship after Tehran rejects offer for talks | Janta Ka Reporter
Janta Ka Reporter
Apr 19, 2026

US President Donald Trump has announced the capture of an Iranian cargo vessel in the Persian Gulf after the Islamic Republic said it would not attend the second round of peace talks in Pakistan. Earlier today, Trump had said that his envoys namely Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were on their way to Pakistan for talks. Rifat Jawaid says that the latest action by the US military is a serious escalation and could trigger the resumption of the conflict.



Transcript

Donald Trump has just announced the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker as he claimed an attack on the vessel. Now,
this is going to escalate the situation once again. And the fact that this happened right on the day this deranged
occupant of the White House claimed to send his two Jewish property tycoons to Islamabad for talks makes this development even more ridiculous.
Iran had anyway made it clear that it was not taking part in the next round of talks. This would be the broad focus of my video tonight. Also in this video,
Iran unveils its new missile city with more deadly arsenal. So please stay tuned. Israali lapdoc Trump had just
taken to social media to flaunt his military transgression against an Iranian flagged vessel in the Persian
Gulf by claiming to have seized the Iranian ship in question. He wrote and I quote, "Today an Iranian flagged cargo
1 minuteship named Tuskar, nearly 900 ft long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier, tried to get past our
naval blockade. And it did not go well for them. The US Navy guided missile destroyer USS Scruce intercepted the
Tuska in the Gulf of Oman and gave them fair warning to stop. The Iranian crew refused to listen. So our Navy ship
stopped them right in the tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room. Right now US Marines have custody of the
vessel. The Tuska is under US Treasury sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity. We have full
custody of the ship and are seeing what's on board. President Donald J.
Trump. End quote. The US military has been carrying out the blockade of the Persian Gulf. In response, Iran too had
reimposed its blockade of the state of Formos yesterday, calling the US action in violation of the ceasefire. Iranian
naval forces today turned back at least two more oil tankers in the state of Hormos forcing the vessels under the
flags of Botswana and Angola to change course while attempting to transit the strategic waterway. Yesterday we saw
quite a few dramatic scenes in this crucial waterway as the sudden announcement by the Iranian Navy sent shock waves amongst those ships that had
already begun sailing towards their destination.
This short clip captures just how quickly the ships in the state of Hormos changed their course after receiving
warning from the Iranian Navy. One clip in particular was of the radio message exchange between the captain of an Indian ship and the Iranian Navy.
Sea Navy. Sea Navy. This is Motoangastan Herald. You gave me clearance to go. My name second on your list. You gave me clearance to go. You are fighting now.
Let me turn back.
This came amidst reports of shots being fired at two other Indian ships. The development evoked angry response from
India which summoned the Iranian ambassador in New Delhi to share their anger. Today the Indian foreign ministry
spokesperson said this. We are extremely uh disturbed by uh the the attacks that
took place uh on merchant mariners. Uh we have also uh maintained uh very very
clearly uh that uh international waterways uh must uh remain free and
open uh for unimpeded passage uh of shipping uh of all kinds whether it is energy related trade or other kinds of
uh commerce. uh and this is the reason why uh as you uh mentioned uh with
regard to the incident related to uh Indian ships that came under attack
yesterday uh we were deeply disturbed by this and uh we uh contacted the uh
Iranian uh authorities and conveyed to them our very deep concern at this uh
development uh and uh for uh again uh to to ensure uh respect for the safety of
uh of mariners uh and respect for the principle of unimpeded passage through uh international waterways which is what
the straight of Hormuz uh is. While the political leadership in Iran particularly the old guard has chosen to
show generosity towards India by allowing some Indian ships to pass through the state of Hormos. in the past. The Iranian military in particular
doesn't appear to be in any mood to ignore India's right-wing prime minister Narendra Money's friendship with war
criminal Benjamin Nathan Yao. Just before Trump and his Israeli master launched the illegal attack on Iran,
Modi was in the illegal settler colony, calling it the fatherland for Indians.
It seems the Iranian Navy has not forgotten this and other instances of Modi's friendship with terrorist Nathan
Yahu. The Iranian Navy, it seems, has also not forgotten the bombing of its frigate by the US terrorist that led to
the murder of over 100 Iranian sailors of the coast of Sri Lanka. This these sailors were returning after being
invited by India to take part in a naval exercise. India had not even issued a condolence let alone criticizing America
for its barbaric action in a water which is deemed as India's water of influence.
Anyway, returning to the reported seizure of the Iranian ship by the US military. This comes just hours after
Israeli lap dog from the White House wrote a long post to demand a peace deal from Iran. He repeated his war crime
chance by threatening to destroy the Iranian civilization if the Islamic Republic didn't sign a peace deal.
Well, Sean is quite right. President Trump is starting to talk at the east coast of America is starting to wake up right now and he's just posted on Truth Social, saying Iran decided to fire
bullets yesterday in the Straight of Hormuz, a total violation of our ceasefire agreement. Many of them were aimed at a French ship, he says, and a
freighter from the United Kingdom. That wasn't nice, was it? Says President Trump. My representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan. They'll be there
tomorrow evening for negotiations. Iran recently announced that they were closing the straight, which is strange because our blockade has already closed it. They're helping us without knowing.
And they are the ones that lose with the closed passage $500 million a day. The United States loses nothing. In fact,
many ships are headed right now to the US, Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska to load up compliments of the IRGC. Always wanting to be the tough guy, he says.
We're offering a very fair and reasonable deal, and I hope they take it because if they don't, the United States is going to knock out every single power plant and every single bridge in Iran.
No more Mr. Nice Guy, he says. They'll come down fast. They'll come down easy.
And if they don't take the deal, it will be my honor to do what has to be done,
which should have been done to Iran by other presidents for the last 47 years.
It's time for the Iran killing machine to end. He signs off President Donald J.
Trump. Trump said that he was sending his two Jewish property developers,
namely Steve Vitkov and his son-in-law Jared Kushna, to Pakistan for talks. But Iran didn't show much interest to Trump's desperation for a peace deal.
Iran is reportedly bracing itself for the resumption of war. Its future strategies include the closure of the Babel Mandep strait with the help of the
Houthis, striking Fujera port or of the UAE and even including the Aramco oil
8 minutesfacilities in Saudi Arabia as its future targets. Trump's frustration stems from the fact that he is unable to accept
defeat despite bombing Iran and killing thousands of innocent civilians,
including school girls. He's refusing to reconcile with the fact that his stupid military adventure has given permanent control of the state of Hormos to Iran.
Listen to this former adviser to the Biden administration, Amos Hostin, on face the nation program. who knows who's
going to show up or not show up from the Iranian side to to negotiate with. I thought that was interesting that the ambassador acknowledged that.
Well, look, Margaret, when you have a negotiation that's being done loosely,
right, phone calls and and no real paper, you get to a point where Iran says Lebanon was included. The US says
no, it wasn't. Uh the Iranians say we're opening the straits because it's completely open. And the Americans say
no, the blockade is staying. there's no if there's no paper, no serious negotiation on this and we're trying to do it really quickly to assuage markets,
then you get to these misunderstandings and now we're in a worse position. This is a very serious issue and I think it it shouldn't take just 3 days to do a
nuclear deal. It's really really critical, right? But if the straits are not opened soon,
the leverage that they have and my concern is no matter how the war ends,
the Iranians now have a card they never had before in practice. In theory, we knew they can close the straits, but they never did. And now for the
foreseeable future, they have this card against us and against their neighbors.
The new Iran is refusing to accept the bullying tactics by the US. Listen to the deputy foreign minister of Iran, say
Khib Zadin. This is what he has said yesterday. never saw close but there were some uh differences over important
issues uh which United States actually decided not to abandon its maximalist position so that was the reason that we
decided to first finalize this framework and then move on to a uh to a inerson
meetings I can say so this is why that knows Marshall aim was in tan uh from
Wednesday evening u until Friday and there were plenty of messages and uh meetings uh back and forth happened and
also texts uh was exchanged. Uh we are still not there yet to to move on to an
actual meeting because there are issues that Americans yet have not abandon their maximalist positions. I can tell
you that Iran has no option just to stop uh aggressors
and once forever. We are defending. We are defending. This was not our choice.
This war was not our choice. It was unnecessary unprovoked war of aggression started by Americans and Israelis in the
middle of negotiation. And while they were just you know conspiring behind the scene that you know negotiations work
well and they were promising that there have been good and significant uh progress. Then they started surprise assassinations. They assassinated the
head of state uh martyed uh standing our leader in his office and off duty commanders not in situation room not in
front line but also in their in their offices. Even Al Jazzer is now reporting that Iran has refused to take part in
any future talks because this would be a waste of time for them as Trump was refusing to come down from his high horse.
Well, uh what we are hearing more and more from Thran is that they do not look uh optim optimist toward towards the uh
second round of negotiations. This is one two uh as you as you mentioned they
are quite skeptical towards uh the United States and how it's offering this second round. Third thing they are
having one main condition which is uh lifting the naval blockade on Iran. Now
um our colleagues also at Al Jazzer are doing currently an interview with Ibrahim Azizi who is the head of Iran's
um Iran Iran's parliament's national security uh committee. He says uh clearly that we are uh we are ready to
talk but we are not ready to waste our time. This is one of his uh one of the things he told us. He also told us that
the Islamic Republic uh went out of the war victorious. So it's not going to
accept blackmailing. Third thing and this is the most important thing in the context of negotiations that Iran is not
going to uh give up its nuclear industry. So this is very important
because one of the main conditions of President Trump was that Iran should end this nuclear program. This uh Iranian
official is saying this is not going to happen. Actually it was it's the same that Iranian officials have been saying for the past years for the past decades.
They're not going to end their nuclear program. This is now part and parcel of the national identity and national
dignity of their country. That's why they are not going to give up on it. And for now what we are actually there's
another line that uh I can see now coming from NA the Iranian news agency
that is saying that Iran has denied any plans for another round of Iran US talks. It's very strange that Pakistani
and US authorities have declared Tuesday as the date of the second round of negotiations while Iranians seem to be
unaware of any such schedule. Trump's problem is that he has lost allies internationally over Iran and he's also
fast losing support even in his own country. A bill calling to curb his powers on Iran was defeated by just one vote recently.
Today, Senator Peter Welch highlighted Trump's crimes against humanity since 28th of February.
And it's just become indisputably clear that the president and Secretary of War
Hexith really had no plan other than, as President Trump put it, to bomb Iran into the Stone Age.
And it is what is happening. The bombing has been among the most intense bombing campaigns in the history of air warfare.
The US has carried out more than 13,000 air strikes. Israel has carried out more
than 10,000 strikes, dropping over 18,000 bombs. In the first ,
the US and Israel hit more targets in Iran than in the first six months of the bombing campaign against ISIS.
These strikes have had a devastating toll on civilians and clearly civilian
targets. Just talk about in Iran, US Israeli strikes have hit 60 hospitals.
44 schools including that girl schools that was horrifying to all of us. The
major B1 highway bridge used by civilians killing 13 civilians. major pharmaceutical plants that were
producing anti-cancer drugs and had associated with them 200,000 jobs,
desalinization plants, sports stadiums, Tehran Tehran's synagogue,
and Mr. President, while the president says the Iranian people are not our adversary, thousands of civilians have
been killed in these strikes. On average, 10 children a day have been killed in USIsraeli air strikes. Nearly
40% of the attacks have taken place in the heart of Tehran,
a dense urban area and 95% of those killed by bombs are civilians.
This kind of bombing tells us that President Trump has made the Iranian people, the very people he promised to
save, the adversary, the enemy, much more so than the Ayatollas.
Let's wait for the Iranian response to the serious escalation caused by the US military at the behest of the clown from the White House. In the meantime, I will
leave you with this video that was released by the Iranian aerospace commander Majid Musabi today.
This video shows Iran's preparedness as it replenishes its underground missile city with new ballistic missiles. This
also shows the aggressive posturing by Iran and how it is literally calling the shots in this conflict.
That's it from me. Thank you very much for your support of this platform and our journalism. If you haven't subscribed to my channel, please do so
because that's one of the many ways you can support independent journalism. God bless you all.

[admin]

Iran’s EXPLOSIVE WARNING Before Islamabad Talks Round 2, Trump Left -RED-FACED | ‘NOT FOR SALE!’
Times Of India
Apr 19, 2026

Iran’s negotiating stance with the United States is hardening, with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf framing the talks in absolute terms. Ghalibaf, who is leading Tehran’s engagement, has described the situation as a binary choice between resistance and surrender, signalling that Iran is unlikely to compromise on core issues. He has also blurred the line between diplomacy and conflict, stating that negotiations and battlefield decisions are effectively the same. According to his remarks, the ceasefire followed sustained pressure from Iran, which he claims forced the United States and Israel to step back after weeks of fighting. Ghalibaf further emphasised Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, underlining the strategic leverage Tehran holds in ongoing negotiations. The statements highlight a negotiating approach rooted in strength and deterrence, raising questions about how much room remains for compromise in the current talks.



Transcript

Iran's top negotiator is no longer speaking the language of compromise.
He's framing the conflict in absolute terms. Muhammad Bager Galibbah, Iranian parliament speaker, who is also leading Tehran's negotiations with Washington,
has delivered one of the starkest messages yet for Iran. The outcome is binary resistance or surrender. We are
ready to sacrifice both our lives and our reputation, he said, describing negotiations and battlefield decisions
as indistinguishable. I see no achievement for myself except martyrdom.
The tone reflects a negotiating posture rooted in pressure, not concession.
I was not a volunteer for this kind of work. Our people must understand that I am a remnant of the fighters.
Undoubtedly for me there is no achievement but martyrdom know that today whether it's negotiation papers or
the very map of the battlefield they are both the same to me. I am ready to give my life and I am ready to sacrifice my
honor here. I am ready to shed blood and I am ready to endure heartache. What's important is that the rights of this
nation, the rights of this Iran and its glory are preserved and people should
have faith and pray and all of us move forward under the leadership of the supreme leader his eminence Ayatollah a mojaba.
The Iranian negotiator framed the ceasefire itself as a forced outcome. He claimed the United States and Israel
failed to achieve their objectives after weeks of fighting, arguing that sustained Iranian attacks and internal resilience compelled the opposing side
to step back. The enemy was forced to establish a ceasefire after 40 days, he said, adding that attempts to
destabilize Iran internally or reopen the Strait of Hormuz on US terms had failed.
In this section, let's consider why we claim to be successful. Just look at what the enemy's objectives were. After all, if the enemy fails to achieve its aims, it has clearly been defeated. This
is quite evident. We were not the aggressors. It was they who initiated the attack. They certainly had specific objectives in mind. He wanted to force
Iran to surrender. He spoke of just two or three days. How many days have passed since then? For more than 40 days, we
fought. And now, for 10, perhaps 12 days, we've had a ceasefire. But after 40 days, he was compelled to announce a ceasefire. He was therefore unable to
force our surrender. His objective was to bring about a change in the regime, but he was unsuccessful in changing it.
He thought Iran was Venezuela that it would act exactly like Venezuela. Then 4 days later, he'd come and declare,
"Well, we've taken Iran's oil. Anyone who wants oil can just come and take it from the Persian Gulf." Well, this was one of his objectives. This is the third
objective. He said, "I would definitely declare from day one that I will destroy Iran's missile capability with the bombings I carry out."
He realized that as time went on, our firing, our precision remained completely unaffected. No matter how
much he bombarded, he saw he couldn't destroy our offensive capabilities. And we had already stated that such a thing
would never happen. To be honest, we were quite vulnerable even when operating our missile launchers.
However, this time you clearly witnessed that in this specific area, our true firepower, the sheer diversity of our attacks was fully revealed. In Isvahan,
they faced a truly disastrous situation,
one even worse than the infamous Tabas incident. He planned to support the counterrevolution
from our western and eastern borders. He admitted, "I gave weapons to some of them to attack and engage us there.
Every effort he made was unsuccessful."
He was actively seeking to stir up internal unrest both before the war and after it. This is something we clearly observed. However, he ultimately failed
to achieve that goal. So, he decided to launch a ground invasion.
He couldn't. He came to address the strait of Hormos and its opening,
meaning to seize and fully control this vital area. He invited the entire world to help, but absolutely no one responded to his call. He then invited Neto to
intervene, but again, no one answered him. He tried to carry out this task himself, but no one came to his aid.
Well, it's abundantly clear then that we are the ones who are victorious in this particular scenario. He dismissed claims that Iran had been in talks earlier,
insisting negotiations only began after US President Donald Trump publicly called for a ceasefire. Until then, he
said, there were only indirect exchanges through Pakistan, no formal engagement.
He also accused Washington of mixing threats with diplomacy. If negotiations were already underway, then what were
those ultimatums for? he asked, pointing to warnings of strikes on infrastructure. Trump, he said, is engaged in psychological warfare,
alleging that most of his public statements are false.
I really need to emphasize this particular point right now. Um, if we were to consider we were in negotiations with America,
I'm one of the people. So, who's were all these ultimatums? Why did he say just two days? Why did he say five more days? Why didn't he say I'll strike the
infrastructure tomorrow? S you are right here. I truly admire this insight,
this courage, this fierce devotion from the Iranian nation especially. Let me make it clear here so that we men don't take offense.
The women of this nation, Iranian women were more zealous and courageous than your men. They were in the field. I felt ashamed before them. The day they
declared, "We intend to strike vital bridges to hit power plants and other critical centers." Me,
I saw that scene. A family, a young woman holding her children's hands. They all came and stood right there on the
platform. Everyone went out. They formed the human chain. This this is the true spirit of our nation. I truly don't understand how this ignorant American
ruling establishment can possibly claim this is Venezuela. how they can say such things. Why can't they simply grasp the reality of the situation?
I told Vance that the Iranian nation is a cultured nation, a respectful nation.
They are a courageous nation.
One will not find in the history of Iranian civilization that Iranians ever relinquish their independence.
This is what has granted us this victory, especially considering these international wars that have taken place throughout all recent centuries. And
Iran has in fact recently stated quite clearly that we play absolutely no part whatsoever in these global conflicts if
you know what I mean. Just consider in Iran the sheer number of millions of people who were massacred, slaughtered and ultimately perished at the hands of
these individuals. Whether it was due to famine or during times of war, it has been and continues to be a tremendous source of pride right here that this resilient nation, our steadfast people,
was able to confront and effectively bring to a halt not only the formidable global superpower, but also simultaneously the brutal and bloodthirsty Zionist regime. Together,
they managed to completely immobilize them both. So in this section in reality
no negotiations truly happened until that very moment that is before
the ceasefire. Now you saw Trump a master.
Now people nowadays when they lie and do things that are in short against the rules some call it psychological
warfare. But you saw it yourself. That very tweet from yesterday, he posted eight tweets all at once and seven of
them were outright lies. Well, uh, as I said, you just need to take a look. In any case, the esteemed spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr.
Barai, who also serves as the official spokesperson for the negotiating delegation, last night offered a thorough explanation of this matter,
presenting it both accurately and with great precision. Therefore, it was also from this perspective that when it all began and just to make things perfectly
clear, the negotiations actually commenced at the precise moment when President Trump's tweet was published following the specific request made by the prime minister of Pakistan.
It was he who gave his acceptance and full agreement. That is, he made a request for a ceasefire so that this
matter could truly be put into effect from that day. in those you just mentioned at that time even the negotiation we're talking
no not yes that's right absolutely not no not in the slightest that's only one mediation specifically
those 10 points those letters I mentioned the 15 points that were exchanged we finally after the decision
was made and finalized in the national security council and the supreme leader agreed with the basis and conditions of
negotiation we sent those 10 points points. All of this occurred during those final and from that point on this is the people's right as I've mentioned.
At the same time he emphasized control over key leverage points. Iran he said maintained authority over the strait of
Hormuz a position echoed in broader official messaging that tan is prepared to regulate maritime access under its own conditions. Even as talks continue,
Iran's lead voice at the table is making clear that any agreement will have to align with what he calls the dignity of the nation or not happen at all.

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Trump Kicks Vance Out As 25th Amendment Threat Erupts
Jack Cocchiarella
Apr 19, 2026

Political commentator Jack Cocchiarella reacts to Donald Trump's latest war meltdown.



Transcript

I don't want to give JD Vance any advice, but if I were him, I would use the emotional and mental breakdown that Donald Trump just had as a justification
for the 25th Amendment. Not only did Donald Trump start this morning with another threat to end Iranian civilization, but then he kicked Vance
off of the negotiating team to make sure that that doesn't actually happen. And then after he kicked him off the
negotiating team, we got a very interesting piece of information about those negotiations that exposes Donald
Trump's dementia and the fact that JD Vance might actively been trying to knife him as Donald Trump is knifing his
career. There is a lot to get into in terms of this White House civil war, but it does all begin with what Donald Trump posted this morning on Truth Social
before we get into Vance and actually Jared Kushner in his corruption a little bit later in this video. So, do stick around, but it all starts with Trump's
Truth Social meltdown. Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social just an hour ago.
Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the straight of Hormuz, a total violation of our ceasefire agreement.
Many of them were aimed at friendships in a freighter from the United Kingdom.
That wasn't nice, was it? My representatives are going to Islamabad,
Pakistan. They will announce they will be there tomorrow evening for negotiations. Iran recently announced that they were closing the straight,
which is strange because our blockade has already closed it. So, I guess the straight isn't open as Donald Trump has said. They're helping us without
knowing. And they are the ones and let lose with the close passage. $500 million a day. The United States loses
nothing. In fact, many ships are headed right now to the US, Texas, Louisiana,
and Alaska to load up. Compliments of the IRGC, always wanting to be the tough guy. We're offering a very fair and
reasonable deal. And I hope they take it because if they don't, the United States is going to knock out every single power plant and every single bridge in Iran.
No more Mr. Nice Guy. They'll come down fast. They'll come down easy. And if you don't make a deal, it'll be my honor to
do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran by other presidents for the last 47 years. It's time for the Iran killing machine to
end. President DJT. All right, we are threatening war crimes once again because when hasn't that worked? Oh,
wait. It's never worked. And and it's not just that Donald Trump is threatening war crimes, that it is disgusting, that it is immoral, that it
shows the president of the United States is deeply deeply disturbed. But it is also not a good strategy. We have
already done this. Donald Trump threatened to blow up all the bridges.
Donald Trump threatened to end the civilization and where has it gotten us?
Is the straight of hormuz open? Do we have a deal? Did the first round of negotiations go well? Hell, I think Senator John Oaf gave the greatest
breakdown of how little we've actually accomplished. The regime is intact along with its ability to throttle the
global energy supply along with its stockpile of highlyenriched uranium which it only assembled after Donald Trump shredded President Obama's Iran deal.
Do you remember that?
See the Obama administration had done actual work.
led by actual diplomats.
Trump literally sends his golf buddy Steve and his son-in-law Jared.
We have gotten nothing. Zero zilch.
Natada. There has been no successful negotiation. It is why we are doing a second negotiation. So, you might think
if you're Donald Trump and you have rational thought going up here, if you have any logic, hm, the first time I threatened to blow up their entire civilization and war crime them to hell,
they didn't give me the deal that I wanted. So, maybe that is not an effective strategy in getting the deal
that I want. Huh. Wow. What groundbreaking negotiation science that that is. Donald Trump's threats do not
land. And you continue to hear Republicans say the opposite of what is true, which is what happens all the time, but that Donald Trump doesn't
bluff. They keep saying this, Donald Trump doesn't bluff. He's not bluffing with Iran. All he has done is bluff. Donald Trump has failed at negotiations.
And so has JD Vance. So is Jared Kushner. So is Steve Witoff, which is why I guess Donald Trump wanted to
change things up with the group that he was sending to Islamabad. But what was funny about the decision that he made
with his negotiations was it wasn't even real. Proving once again that Donald Trump does not know what's happening in
5 minuteshis war. You'll understand after we get into this article. Trump benches Vance in humiliating move. JD Vance is not
being tapped for the latest round of negotiations with Iran. Donald Trump has sidelined JD Vance as his chief
negotiator with Iran after a string of setbacks. During a commercial break on Sunday's MSNBC's The Weekend, host
Jacqueline Alman phoned the president who broke some news about the upcoming talks. When the show returned, co-host
Jonathan Kapart recounted that Trump said envoys like Steve Whit and Jared Kushner would be involved, but not the
vice president. So Donald Trump got a call and said JD Vance will not be going. He told reporters JD Vance not a
part of these negotiations. You asked him if the vice president was going. He said no. Kart said the vice president is not going because of security reasons.
They said Vance is not going because security reasons. Alman then explained,
"Yeah, the president said that Secret Service essentially, I feel like the takeaway was they don't have enough time to sort out to set up with the V vice
president is going to do, going to go and lead those negotiations again like he did last week." The apparent shakeup hadn't yet reached all corners of the
administration. Minutes earlier, US Ambassador Mike Waltz told ABC this week that Vance would in fact be leading the
Islamabad talks. And it's interesting that Mike says that because in fact he's right. The White House tells CNN that VP
Vance is in fact traveling to Pakistan for talks in addition to Witoff and Kushner despite Donald Trump saying
Vance wasn't attending. As for Trump this morning saying Vance wasn't making the trip, a White House official told
CNN things changed. So let's make one thing very clear. Donald Trump did kick JD Vance off the negotiating team. He
absolutely did. He said, "Well, quite frankly, JD, I think you've uh I think you failed and you've been speaking against me and so we're going to we're
going to go ahead and humiliate you and uh and I think this will be pretty funny and what are you going to say about it, JD?" And then his handlers stepped in.
They said, "Uh, one, this is a bad look.
Two, this makes us look weak. Three, we don't want this infighting to be so obvious. And four, Donald Trump also might have just forgotten. Like JD Vance
could have very well always have been going and Donald Trump just forgot. It's the reason why I started this video by saying if you're JD Vans, you might use this as your 25th Amendment opportunity.
That the president has us engaged in a war in which he is now threatening new war crimes as a solution to negotiations
that he doesn't understand are taking place. Donald Trump can't even remember the nature of negotiations as he
threatens war crimes to settle them. Do we really feel strongly about that guy's ability to lead us to peace? And not just peace, but not into more war.
Donald Trump has already said that after this conflict is over, Cuba is next. So,
do we really feel great about that guy's ability to to kind of reign in reign in the in the in the figurative horse when
it comes to not getting out there and doing doing more war? Oh, dear leader,
you know, I think we're going to do more war. And I think I think Donald Trump is so great. I think I think, you know, if he wants to go to war with Cuba, that's totally fine. I know I said no new wars,
but it's fine. What? Are you serious?
Donald Trump can't even remember who's on his negotiating team? Is that really like a a picture of strength from this administration? They can't even decide who they're sending. One day it's Vance,
one day it's not. The The one thing that stays true is the real estate developer and the [ __ ] [ __ ] Jared Kushner is
heading up the negotiations. Donald Trump forgets vice president, his vice president, the vice president is a part of this negotiating team. He kicks him
out, but he he remembers that Witoff, a goober, and Jared Kushner, an even
bigger goober who got $2 billion from the Saudis for the little the little fund he's handling, by the way,
for his for what is it? Is it private equity? Is it a is it a venture capital fund? Like he got two two he got two billion
dollars for his little fund under the condition that he's not allowed to he's not allowed to run it. Like he got a $2
billion check from the Saudis for his little business under the condition that he is not allowed to do anything with it
because he's that dumb. Because the the grift is that obvious. The bribes are so obvious that they're like, "Well, we got
to be in good with Kushner because, you know, he's controlling these negotiations and such." Um, but don't let him run things. Don't let us waste
don't let him waste our$2 billion dollars. Don't let him ruin everything because Jared Kushner is a [ __ ] idiot. And still Donald Trump's like,
"Well, I like that guy more than JD."
10 minutesThat's humiliating for JD. This is like again, this is contributing so painfully for Vance to the end of his political career. His polls are falling apart.
Donald Trump doesn't like him again.
He's kicking him out of the negotiations. He's putting him back in because his handlers told him to. The president has dementia and the vice
president is hated. My god. But still still rooting for Kush. Still rooting for the Kushner. Oh jeez. And again coming back to our guy from earlier,
John Oaf did a great job breaking down all you need to know about his corruption.
How much how much do you guys know about Jared Kushner,
Ivanka's husband? He's on the Saudi payroll for $2 billion. Did you know that?
And now he's leading American diplomacy in the Middle East, apparently, while at the very same time asking princes and shakes across the Arab world to give him billions more.
If you're watching this online, don't take my word for it. Look it up for yourself.
Can you imagine like a normal sitting US ambassador just hitting up Saudi Cran Prince Muhammad bin Salman for billions of dollars?
But he's a Trump, a royal, a princling. The rules are for us, not for them.
And it's not just Jared getting in on the action.
A company owned in part by Eric and Don Jr. has been pitching Gulf Kingdoms on its drone interceptors during this war.
The Financial Times reported, quote,
Pete Hegsf's broker looked to buy defense fund before Iran attack.
I tell you what, never before have we seen so little effort to hide so much corruption.
The Mara Lago mafia has taken American corruption to spectacular new heights.
That guy, not not JD Vance. Not to say that JD Vance is himself a statesman. He's not. I think they'd be pushing it.
But that guy, Donald Trump was was firm and sending to Islamabad for his talk.
But advance, he's like, "Get this [ __ ] guy off. This get this guy off the team." Humiliating, humiliating stuff for JD Vance that we are going to
continue, of course, to cover every single day on this show. And if you want to support that, as always, you can hit that subscribe button, leave a like on this video. If you stuck around to the end, drop a blue heart in the comments.
If you want to support the show another way, you can go follow me on Instagram,
JD Catrella. Same Instagram, uh, same Twitter, uh, as the Instagram at JD Katrella. You can also click below to
ubscribe to my Substack, becoming a paid or free subscriber. Great way to support. Keep on fighting, y'all. Don't let them silence you. And until next
time, I'll see you

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The FBI Director Is MIA. Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.
by Sarah Fitzpatrick
The Atlantic
April 17, 2026
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/20 ... es/686839/

On Friday, April 10, as FBI Director Kash Patel was preparing to leave work for the weekend, he struggled to log into an internal computer system. He quickly became convinced that he had been locked out, and he panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to nine people familiar with his outreach. Two of these people described his behavior as a “freak-out.”

Patel oversees an agency that employs roughly 38,000 people, including many who are trained to investigate and verify information that can be presented under oath in a court of law. News of his emotional outburst ricocheted through the bureau, prompting chatter among officials and, in some corners of the building, expressions of relief. The White House fielded calls from the bureau and from members of Congress asking who was now in charge of the FBI.

It turned out that the answer was still Patel. He had not been fired. The access problem, two people familiar with the matter said, appears to have been a technical error, and it was quickly resolved. “It was all ultimately bullshit,” one FBI official told me.

But Patel, according to multiple current officials, as well as former officials who have stayed close to him, is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy. He has good reasons to think so—including some having to do with what witnesses described to me as bouts of excessive drinking. My colleague Ashley Parker and I reported earlier this month that Patel was among the officials expected to be fired after Attorney General Pam Bondi’s ouster, on April 2. “We’re all just waiting for the word” that Patel is officially out of the top job, an FBI official told me this week, and a former official told my colleague Jonathan Lemire that Patel was “rightly paranoid.” Senior members of the Trump administration are already discussing who might replace him, according to an administration official and two people close to the White House who were familiar with the conversations.

In response to a detailed list of 19 questions, the White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told me in a statement that under Donald Trump and Patel, “crime across the country has plummeted to the lowest level in more than 100 years and many high profile criminals have been put behind bars. Director Patel remains a critical player on the Administration’s law and order team.” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told me in a statement, “Patel has accomplished more in 14 months than the previous administration did in four years. Anonymously sourced hit pieces do not constitute journalism.”

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US Navy SHOCKED! Iran Unleashes INVISIBLE SEA DEMONS From CAVES, Targets Trump's WARSHIPS In Hormuz
Times Of India
Apr 20, 2026

Iran has once again shut down the Strait of Hormuz, after briefly reopening it, as tensions with the United States (US) continue to escalate following an American blockade of Tehran’s ports amid a temporary truce. And at the center of this strategy is reportedly a swarm, called the “Mosquito Fleet”. A network of small, high-speed attack boats, designed not for traditional naval battles, but for sowing chaos that can overwhelm the biggest warships.

0.00-2:40

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Is There a Way out of the Iran War? (w/ John Mearsheimer) | The Chris Hedges Report
The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel
Apr 20, 2026

As Iran agrees to resume negotiations in Islamabad, John Mearsheimer dissects the complicated challenges and competing interests facing the United States as the countdown to the end of the ceasefire begins.



Transcript

Iran, after initially bulking, will send negotiators to Islamabad for a new round of talks with the United States less
than before the ceasefire is set to expire. Iran, however, has criticized the US for violating the
ceasefire from the beginning of its implementation, citing the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz since
April 13th and the seizure of an Iranian container ship. Both they cite as breaches of the truce as well as
international law. Iran says that if the US continues to carry out what it defines as acts of aggression, Iranian forces will respond accordingly.
Thrron's 10-point proposal submitted before the first round of Islamabad talks is the basis for further negotiations. But the 10 points include
a number of conditions the US has repeatedly rejected. It demands the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions on Iran, continued Iranian
control over the Strait of Hormuz, US military withdrawal from the Middle East, an end to attacks on Iran and its
allies, the release of some $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and a UN Security Council resolution making any
deal binding. So, where are we? Is the Trump administration ready to make concessions in the face of Iran's ability to strangle the global economy by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz?
What will be the role of Israel, which has threatened to resume attacks on Iran with perhaps only 5% of the pre-war 20%
of the oil and natural gas making its way through the strait? How much more can the global economy already under severe distress endure before it triggers a global economic crisis?
Joining me to discuss the crisis in the Middle East is Professor John Marshimeshire. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor
of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Professor Marshimemer who graduated from West Point and was a
captain in the US Air Force is the author of numerous books including conventional deterrence, nuclear
deterrence, ethics, liidel heart and the weight of history, the tragedy of great power politics, the Israel lobby and US
foreign policy and why leaders lie the truth about lying in international politics.
The big question for me, John, is does the Trump administration realize
uh in your view that uh this is a game that Iran controls that um that
essentially because of their strangle hold on the uh straight of Hormuz,
3 minutesthey're largely going to be able to dictate the terms. Let me just reinforce what you said, Chris. I think there's no
question that if you go up the escalation ladder, which the Trump administration is threatening to do after the ceasefire ends on Wednesday,
uh that we cannot win. And in fact, I would make the argument that it's in Iran's advantage uh for the United
States to go up the escalation ladder because the longer this war goes on and the less oil that comes out of the Persian Gulf and maybe even the Red Sea,
the better for Iran. Uh so I think going up the escalation ladder uh makes no
sense for us. The $64,000 question is whether or not President Trump and his adviserss understand that. And my guess
is that they do. And therefore, I think that we will go to great lengths to work
4 minutesout some sort of deal uh on Wednesday uh or before Wednesday uh so that we
don't have to go up the escalation ladder. I just find it hard to believe that the administration would uh be
interested in uh escalating, but uh you know, you never know with the Trump administration and with President Trump in particular. So, it's hard to say for
sure, but I don't see them going up the escalation ladder. I think they'll try to craft a deal and if they don't have
all of the essentials in place, they'll just extend the ceasefire. So, that's my surmise as to where this one is headed.
I want to ask you about the 10 points because uh many of these points uh I mean the
removal of US military bases from the region uh continued uh control of the straight of Hormuz
these are uh pretty bitter pills for the United States to swallow. I think there's no question about that.
I often say that you know if you look at what people are talking about in terms of a settlement uh this week uh uh what
they focus on is the nuclear issue and what they really focus on is the nuclear enrichment issue. Hardly anybody seems
to be saying anything about things like reparations, sanctions, uh who controls the straight of Hormuz moving forward,
what about American military bases in the region? And furthermore, the Iranians are deeply interested in getting some sort of security
arrangement put in place so that Israel and the United States don't attack Iran again uh in 6 months. These are hugely
complicated issues. Uh there are a good number of them and I think they have to be settled. Uh as well as the nuclear issue. But even on the nuclear issue,
Chris, it's not clear to me where this all leads. Uh the United States would like to eliminate
Iran's nuclear enrichment capability completely, but it seems quite clear that the Iranians are unwilling to do
that. Furthermore, it seems that the Americans or the United States and the Israelis want all of that enriched
uranium that Iran has, the uraniums that that is enriched up to 60%. They want it taken out of the country, but the
Iranians have said very clearly that that's not going to happen. Uh obviously, some compromises are going to have to be made here, but those
compromises will not be easy to make. uh I don't think they'll be made quickly and then the question is uh how is Trump
going to sell them uh especially to the Israelis uh and to Israel's supporters in the United States. So what we're
saying here I think is that even on the nuclear issue alone it's a very complicated matter but when you throw in all the other issues as well it's just
hard to see how you get any sort of what one might call meaningful peace agreement.
You have the Netanyahu government threatening to resume attacks on Iran even unilaterally.
Uh and the the other question is how much influence Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff I mean two utterly
inept negotiators of course but to and let's call them what they are. I mean they're they're Zionists Zionist assets.
uh you know, are they able, as they were with the inception of this war, to uh sell the Trump administration
on uh resuming on on what Netanyahu wants, which is resuming attacks. Look, I think even without Kushner and Witoff,
who are uh Israeli assets for sure, uh there is so much pressure from pro-Israel forces in the United States
on Trump that there are real limits to what he can do visav uh Iran
in terms of making concessions to the Iranians. Uh but the problem here is that Trump is also feeling pressure from
the other side. And what I mean by that is if he doesn't settle this uh and especially if he escalates as the
Israelis would like him to do uh then we're heading on a course where the
international economy is going to go off a cliff. I mean, the incentive for President Trump to settle this conflict
as quickly as possible has mainly to do with economic considerations. Uh there's a great danger here that if we continue
on this path and again if we escalate especially uh that uh this will have disastrous consequences for the world
economy which includes the United States and of course that will have disastrous consequences uh for the midterm
elections. So Trump is desperate to shut this one down. So he has that pressure on one side and then he has pressure
from Israel on the other side. And again, we cannot emphasize strongly enough that Israel has no interest in
settling this war. Israel wants to see Iran finished off. They they want to see
Iran decisively defeated. And as we both know, if anyone has won this war at this point and is likely to come out of this
war as a winner, it's Iran, not the United States. Well, given that reality,
the Israelis are going to continue to put pressure on the United States to stay at war. So I would argue that even
if President Trump is able to extend the ceasefire and get a framework for a future
agreement in place, the Israelis and their supporters in the United States will be working overtime not to make
that framework uh morph into a peaceful agreement. They'll be working overtime to undermine that framework and get the United States back at war with Iran.
One of the fascinating uh kind of subtexts of this was Lebanon. Uh Israel
uh almost when the ceasefire began started pounding Lebanon. Uh but Trump,
you know, said it had to stop. Um I mean Israel's has a very uh kind of elastic vision of ceasefires. It's still
attacking Lebanon. But um the this was a fundamental demand on the part of Iran.
and they uh they said, "Well, we we've stopped attacking GCC uh bases in GCC countries uh with your allies. Um so,
you have to stop attacking our allies.
This is a regional ceasefire." And uh they you know while Israel has certainly
11 minutesbreached the ceasefire in Lebanon uh as they do daily in Gaza, nevertheless it
does seem I don't know what your take on it is that that was uh a huge concession on
the part of the Trump administration to Iranian demands.
Well, excuse me. the the Trump administration had no choice but to get
Israel to stop attacking Hezbollah and Iran for a brief period of time at least
so that the Iranians would open the straight of Hormuz. That's what they wanted. Uh and Trump was able to get the Israelis to make a small concession,
which is to say the Israelis agreed to a 10-day ceasefire. Just think about it.
It's a 10day ceasefire and I've been following it and it's not even much of a ceasefire at this 10day period. But the
idea that the that the Israelis are interested in a meaningful ceasefire is not a serious argument. What the
Israelis are interested in is creating a civil war in Lebanon for two reasons.
One, to weaken Hezbollah uh and to take Hezbollah's attention off of Israel. and number two to weaken
Lebanon overall. Uh this is standard Israeli tactics. And uh the Israelis
will continue to attack Lebanon and Hezbollah in good part not just to
weaken Hezbollah, but in good part to undermine any negotiations between Iran
on one hand and the United States on the other. It's obvious that for Iran,
Hezbollah is a very important ally and they want to do everything they can to help Hezbollah. The Israelis fully
understand that. And the Israelis understand that if they continue to attack Hezbollah and continue to keep
the situation in Lebanon as a hot conflict that this will limit how much Iran will be able to
concede to the United States. So, this is one of the reasons I find it hard to imagine that you're ever going to settle this conflict uh in any meaningful way.
You wrote the book with Steven Walt on the Israel lobby. Uh we've certainly seen a diminishing of the power of the
Israel lobby and Apac. Democrats now kind of run from it whereas they, you know, couldn't wait to get key slots at
the Apac convention. Um, do you think the Israel lobby is uh weakened enough
that its kind of death grip on the American political system is no longer as effective?
I think in terms of the public discourse in the United States, uh, the lobby has lost. uh when Steve and I wrote the
article and then the book in 2006 and 2007 uh the lobby was able to basically
control the discourse and greatly limit the criticism of Israel, the USIsraeli relationship and the lobby itself. Those
days are gone. the discourse today about the lobby and criticism of Israel. This is all out in the open in ways that are actually hard for me to imagine, Chris,
given where we were at back when Steve and I wrote the article in the book. But that's at the level of the discourse at
the level of policy uh and especially with regard to the Trump administration,
which as you know has two more years and nine months in power. Uh the lobby still has a strangle hold on the Trump administration.
uh and there's no evidence that uh Trump has been able to break away from that strangle hold and act independently to
act uh simply in America's interest. So in terms of US policy, I think the lobby
is as strong as ever. Now, how that plays out after the next presidential election is a different matter because
you see both in the Democratic party and in the Republican party that there are politicians who are beginning to
question the relationship with Israel who are beginning to question whether associating themselves with Apac is a
good thing and so forth and so on. But I would still bet that it'll be, you know,
a good 10 years before uh our policy towards Israel is uh not seriously affected by the lobby.
So what does that mean visa van? So if the Israel lobby retains that kind of power and in a way Trump is was even
more obsequious because the Israel lobby has been calling for a war in Iran for four decades and other administrations
have uh resisted for all of the reasons that are now apparent. Uh but uh does
what how how does that play out? I mean it it looks like a very dark scenario. Well, it's hard for me to imagine,
Chris, that we get a meaningful peace agreement between the United States and Iran uh because of the power of the
lobby. Uh I think the only argument against that position is that the
economic consequences of continuing uh this war against Iran will be so drastic
uh will hurt the international economy and therefore the American economy so much that we have no choice but to work
out an arrangement uh with Iran uh that recognizes the fact that Iran is the winner uh in this
conflict and that there's not going to be any more attacks on Iran down the road. Uh
that may happen. Uh it's very hard to say just how this is going to play out over the next few months. Uh but I think if that doesn't happen, in other words,
if we don't get to the precipice and we're not on the verge of falling off the prefaces precipice, uh I think that
Israel will make it impossible for us to have a meaningful agreement with uh the Iranians.
Let's talk about the tactic of seizing Iranian ships uh by the Trump administration.
Well, uh I thought that uh last Friday
when uh the uh ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was in place and the uh
Iranians said that they would open up the straight. uh and in fact began to open up the straight that the ceasefire
was then fully in place and that we would begin moving forward uh in the negotiations in Islamabad. Uh
it looked very promising last Friday when these uh events took place. Then
President Trump said that he was not going to take uh the US blockade off the straight of Hormuz, which is another way
of saying he was not going to take the US blockade off of Iran. And this is after Iran has just agreed to end its
blockade. And he also said that the United States was going to stop and
board ships that were headed toward Iran uh or were leaving from Iran.
And the end result is that the Iranians did 180° turn and they said they're
reclosing the straight of Hormuz. And that's where we are today. This is completely counterproductive.
Forget the legality of what we did. This is completely counterproductive. You got the cease pl ceasefire in place on
Friday and you're talking about having negotiations in Islamabad early this week in the wake of putting the
ceasefire in place. Why wouldn't you just put an end to the American naval blockade on Iran? It just makes common
sense. Why would you say you're going to keep the blockade on? Why would you say that you're going to board Iranian ships and then actually go out and board an
Iranian ship after you shoot it up? Uh it just doesn't seem to make any sense to me. And this is, you know, one of the
principal aspects of Trumpian foreign policy. It is rather bizarre and doesn't
seem to comport with what would consider one would consider sort of rational legal behavior. So I to be honest don't understand what's going on here.
Don't they isn't it in their interest to have Iranian oil on the market? That's I I didn't mention that, but you're
exactly right that that's why we were allowing Iranian oil to come through the straight out into the global market.
You're you're exactly right. And here they are threatening to cut it off. In addition to the fact they're making it
less likely that the other side trusts you, the Iranians trust you, and that you can work out a deal. Uh, it seems
that the Trump administration wants a deal. They should want a deal because,
as I said to you before, they can't go up the escalation ladder and win. Number one, and number two, they are in danger
of taking the international economy off a cliff. So, they should want a deal here. And sometimes, President Trump acts like he wants a deal. Other times,
he acts like he doesn't want a deal. And this is an instance of that. And then you add to it, as you did, the fact that
we really do need that Iranian oil out in the global market to do everything possible to keep oil prices as low as possible.
Well, the reason great powers have a diplomatic core is that they're multilingual,
bicultural.
they they understand their adversary as well as their allies and uh the Trump
administration has gutted the State Department. So uh one wonders if it's just an on the one hand they may want a
deal on the other hand they're utterly unable perhaps to read Iranian political power and Iranian culture.
I agree with you. I mean, there's no question that just in a very general level, President Trump does not respect expertise.
He thinks he's a genius. He thinks he knows everything. He doesn't have to rely on experts and he doesn't need
anyone from the State Department or any area experts inside the government to tell him what to do. He knows what to do. So, there is that dimension to it.
But there's another dimension to this, Chris, that's even more worrisome.
And that is that it sometimes strikes me that President Trump is a mad king. I
don't know if you read the story in the Wall Street Journal uh about what life is like inside President Trump's White
House uh in the course of this war against Iran. And the story is told in
there uh and the White House has not refuted this story that uh after those
two pilots were shot down uh earlier this month uh and President Trump was
told about this. He was hysterical. He he was hysterical for a few hours. He
was just beside himself with rage to the point where his aids had to keep him
outside of the room while they decided how to deal with the problem.
And occasionally one of the aids would go out and brief him on what was going on. You want to just think about what's
going on here. Here is the president of the United States in the midst of a serious crisis. An American fighter has
fighter plane, an F-15 has been shot down inside of Iran. There are two pilots who are missing. They have to rescue them. And this is going to take some careful planning. This is a crisis.
The president of the United States is throwing a tantrum, an hour's long tantrum, according to the Wall Street Journal. Again, to the point where he has to be taken outside of the room. Uh,
can you imagine this happening with JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
It's unimaginable. It's unimaginable to me that any president would act this way. And it's very interesting how
little attention this episode has got uh in the mainstream media. But it, I
think, speaks volumes about the dangers that we face with President Trump in control. uh if we get into a really
serious crisis, something beyond the actual war that's now taking place that threatens to escalate that involves
maybe China or Russia, uh and he's in charge, uh this is a very frightening thought and I would imagine in that
circumstance he'll be pushed out of the room again and his aids will take over.
But what does that tell you about the United States? And just one final point on this, you want to remember that President Trump is the kind of person
who thinks he knows everything. And therefore, even his aids don't matter that much. He is the ultimate decider.
Period. End of story. And if this is our ultimate decider, if this is our sovereign
uh in an extreme crisis, I think we're in real trouble.
Well, he was reportedly against the advice of his military and intelligence
chiefs. He believed they would the Iranians would not seize the straight of Hormuz.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think if you go back to the uh original decision to uh attack Iran and you read there were
two New York Times stories uh on this whole matter. The second one was just filled with details. It's very clear
that except for Pete Hexth, who really doesn't matter very much because I don't think anybody even President Trump takes
him that seriously. But all of his other adviserss uh were uh very very skeptical if not opposed uh to this operation.
They understood full well that this was playing with fire. But nevertheless,
President Trump dismissed their concerns and he went along with the Israelis who basically sold him a bill of goods. Uh
it was the head of Mossad uh and David Barnea and uh Prime Minister Netanyahu who convinced
President Trump that we would win a quick and decisive victory. And then just to build on your point, therefore we wouldn't have to worry about Iran
closing the straight of Hormuz. We would win very quickly. But the fact is if Trump had listened to his adviserss and
he had carefully examined them uh as to why they were uh reticent or opposed to
27 minutesgoing to war against Iran, he might not have done this. In fact, I think it's highly likely he would not have done it.
Uh but again, he didn't really care what they had to say. uh and he was willing to listen to the Israelis uh and he
should have understood that the Israelis were selling him a bill of goods but uh apparently he didn't.
Let's talk about the global economy. So uh you know a guess some oil is getting
out um not a lot I mean an estimate maybe 5%
um countries India Japan I mean they're Philippines they're already in serious
trouble um and uh this if it's not a total blockage uh this trickle is
already having seismic ramifications s uh so talk a little bit about where we
are now in terms of the global economy and potentially where we could go and then there's all sorts of other factors
like fertilizer which I mean uh which uh is uh also passed through the straight
and uh is because it's an oil der derivative and uh and the effect on food prices. Yeah, I mean there are number of
dimensions to the economic catastrophe that's staring us in the face and and again I like to talk about this is the Titanic hitting the iceberg.
Uh and it's important to emphasize the Titanic Titanic has not hit the iceberg.
Uh and although there's no question that serious damage has been done and will be done uh catastrophic damage will be done if we hit the iceberg. And of course,
this is why President Trump is deeply committed uh I believe uh to shutting this one down as quickly as possible
because he does not want to hit the iceberg. Uh first of all, there is the helium as you point out. Uh there's a
significant helium shortage in the world because the strait has been short down shut down and helium is very important
for producing uh microchips. Uh furthermore, there's been a significant slowdown in the amount of aluminum
coming out of the Gulf and aluminum really matters as well. Then there are the fertilizers. Uh 30% of the world's
fertilizers come through the Gulf and hardly any are getting out. Uh and this is going to have huge consequences uh
for uh the production of food around the world. Uh you remember we had this thing
called the green revolution and the green revolution uh allowed uh countries around the world
produce to produce sufficient food to feed almost all of their people and that food that green revolution was heavily
dependent on the coming of abundant fertilizers. Right? You used to have to
rely on manure and compost. uh instead of fertilizers. But once you get fertilizers and lots of fertilizers
coming out of the Gulf, uh that facilitates the green revolution. Uh and then furthermore, you mechanize uh
agriculture. And when you mechanize agriculture, that means that agriculture is dependent on gas and oil and what
have you. And uh therefore if uh the amount of uh oil coming out of the Gulf,
the amount of uh fuel coming out of the Gulf is reduced significantly that is along with the fertilizer going to have
a significant effect uh on the amount of food that's produced and the price of food uh so I think the food crisis
that's looming is uh is great and it could be even worse if this conflict
isn't shut down sooner. And then with regard to oil and gas, the Saudis have to some extent got around this problem
by shipping uh oil across a pipeline uh that trans uh that that crosses Saudi
Arabia from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. And they're uh exporting oil through the Red Sea and quite a bit of
oil, too. And that's alleviated the problem somewhat. Uh the great fear here is that if this escalates the Iranians
working with the Houthis will shut down the Red Sea at Babel Mandab Straight and that will really uh do disastrous things
to the world economy. So at the moment um the damage has been limited somewhat because Saudi oil is getting out through
the Red Sea and as you pointed out before Chris Iranian oil has been getting out as well. So I would guess
that uh 20% of the world's oil comes out of the Gulf. That's about 20 billion dollar barrel 20 billion bar 20 million
barrels a day, excuse me. About 20 million barrels a day. uh and I think probably now about 10 million barrels is
getting out or when Iranian oil was getting out it was a total of about 10.
So only about 10 million barrels were being held up. Uh but you can imagine a situation where if this war escalates
we'll go back to where 20 million barrels are not coming out and that will have devastating consequences. So what I'm getting at here is a great deal of
damage has already been done. Most of it in Asia at this point in time, but almost everybody agrees that the
effects, the negative effects are working their way toward Europe uh and eventually will work their way towards the United States. But in Asia, there's
huge problems already. Uh and uh there is a real danger that they will get even worse if this war escalates. sort of put
it in slightly term slightly different terms if this war isn't settled quickly.
Uh and one thing I forgot by the way is diesel and jet f jet fuel. That's you know where there is a biggest a bigger
crisis looming than even with regard to to normal oil and gas.
Isn't I read somewhere I think European Airlines have about six weeks left of jet fuel?
Yes. and and then they're in real trouble and and that problem is already manifested itself uh in Asia, right? And
as I say, it it's the problem is beginning to move into Europe and it'll eventually move into the United States.
And again, this is why President Trump has a deep-seated interest in shutting this war down uh and doing everything he
can to minimize the damage and minimize is the important word here. there's been a huge amount of damage done and almost everybody agrees that there's going to
be uh significant damage in the years ahead that this is not a problem that can be fixed immediately. But you can
minimize the damage. And if President Trump doesn't cut a deal with the Iranians and get the straight open and
get oil flowing, get diesel and jet fuel flowing, doesn't get fertilizers flowing, and uh we're in the same
situation, you know, 5 months from now that we're in now, I believe that the consequences will be catastrophic for the world economy.
So, you have Trump's uh idiocy and impulsiveness. You have,
in your words, the fact that the Israel lobby still has a strangle hold on the Trump White House and US policy. And of
course, the Israeli government is dead set against uh any kind of agreement with Iran. you have uh demands uh by
Iran and let's be clear that Iran has been targeted for 47 years they've through sanctions and uh and and I think
it appears that Iran has said enough this is this is going to end um these are are big demands for the United
States uh how do we limp forward how does it go forward I don't know you know I mean you raise
these issues at the beginning of the program when you started talking about the 10 point plan of the Iranians which
President Trump was has said would be the basis for the negotiations moving forward. Uh, I mean, just think about Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz,
which effectively means they're going to treat it uh as a pathway that has a toll booth, an Iranian toll booth on it
36 minutesin in Chinese currency, not in the dollar.
Yes. Are we going to tolerate that? Kind of hard to imagine, but uh maybe we'll have to swallow on that one. Then there's the subject of sanctions.
Are we really going to take sanctions off Iran? Uh, and are we going to pay reparations to Iran? Uh, if that
happens, isn't Iran over time likely to recover from the punishment that we have
inflicted on its economy? And won't its economy flourish? And won't this lead to
it becoming a more powerful state in the Middle East? And how will the Israelis react to that? Uh, we're not going to do
away with their nuclear enrichment capability in Toto. I mean, they're going to keep some nuclear enrichment capability. The Israelis and the Hawks
in the United States are never going to be happy with that. President Trump at best, I think, is going to get an improved JCPOA.
Can you sell that? Uh furthermore, how do you convince the Iranians that you're not going to pay them a return visit,
that there's not going to be a third war? What do you do in that regard? What do you do with American bases in the
region? Uh are we just going to leave the region as they'd like us to or are we going to stay there? And if we stay there, are they going to greatly increase their ballistic missile force?
I think so. I think one could argue that even if we leave, they'll greatly increase their ballistic missile force. What are the Israelis going to do then?
So, you can go on and on talking about all of the really difficult issues that have to be solved. Uh and the question
is h how do you solve them? How do you get some sort of meaningful peace agreement here? Uh and even if you don't
get a meaningful peace agreement, uh how do you work out a frozen conflict? What does a frozen conflict look like? And
and how stable is that frozen conflict moving forward? I mean, I wish I could give you clear answers to this, Chris,
but when I look at it, I find it kind of mind-boggling to try and figure out where this is all headed. Uh, and the
only thing I can say with a high degree of certainty is it looks like one giant mess that's going to lead to endless trouble.
Do you limp forward with a ceasefire, a frozen conflict? Is that perhaps at the moment the best that we can hope for?
Yeah, I think that that's true. As I said before, the one possible factor
that uh offers hope uh is that if we are headed towards the iceberg and it looks
like we're going to hit the iceberg and we have one last clear chance to veer away from it, uh we may then put
tremendous pressure on the Israelis to just uh uh not say anything to to just accept
what we do. and then we cut a deal with the Iranians. But that deal we would cut with the Iranians would be a deal that's
very favorable to them. Uh the key point here is that the Iranians are in the driver's seat. This is why I said you can't go up the escalation ladder and
win against them. Uh you want to remember we came into this war with four big demands. They had to do away with
their nuclear enrichment capability completely. They had to stop supporting the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
uh they had to get rid of their missiles and furthermore there was going to be regime change. Those were the big four demands. The most important of which I
believe was regime change because if you got regime change then in their story you could uh achieve the other three goals. But those were the big four
goals. We have failed on all four accounts.
You just don't want to lose sight of this. We have failed to achieve any of those goals. And in fact, one could argue, Chris, that we have made the
situation worse. uh in terms of missiles, it would seem to me that the major lesson that the Iranians uh should
take from this conflict is that they should build lots of missiles, lots of launchers, and hide them in missile
cities. Uh in terms of the nuclear issue, one could argue that they if anything, they should have learned that
what they need is nuclear weapons. Uh and this could be pushing them further in that direction. And and then there's
the whole question of the straight of Hormuz. And it's important to emphasize that in addition to failing to achieve our four objectives, we're now in a
situation where the Iranians control the straight of Hormuz and have a toll booth uh inserted in it. Uh which did not
exist on February 27th. Uh and this is likely to remain in place. It's hard for me to imagine them giving up the toll
booth or giving up control of the straight. Maybe they will because they'll get some other uh goodies in the
deal that is worked out. But we have failed here. This has been a colossal blunder. Uh and Trump is again now in a
position where he's got the Israelis hemming him in on one side and he has the potential of hitting that iceberg
hemming him in on the other side. He has hardly any maneuver room and it's hardly surprising therefore to see him behaving
in more and more erratic ways looking more and more like a mad king because he has put himself in an untenable position.
Is this our Suez crisis or are we not there yet? Is does the Suez crisis happen once we hit the iceberg?
It's not our Suez crisis. I mean to understand what happened at Suez, you have to remember that Britain Britain
was a declining great power. Uh the decline started around 1900 and it's
pretty much all downhill from 1900 uh up until the present. Uh and uh
Britain in 1956 was not even a great power. You remember well Chris, we referred to the world that we lived in during the cold war as a bipolar system.
There were two great powers in the system. We called them superpowers.
Those two great powers were the United States and the Soviet Union. Britain was not even a great power. Uh and you
remember in 1968, this of course is 12 years after the Suez crisis, the British basically abandoned all their defense
commitments east of Suez, east of the Suez Canal. Uh and this is because again Britain is a declining great power. It's
losing its military might. Its power projection capability is greatly reduced. This is not what's happening to
the United States. There's no question that the United States now has a peer competitor in the system which is China
and Russia is also a great power. We're now in a multipolar world. U so the United States does have to deal with two
other great powers. But the United States is still a great power. It has a tremendous amount of power and that power is not going to go away.
What's going on here is that the United States, especially under President Trump, but even under President Biden,
has lost its ability to employ that power in smart ways. We behave in remarkably foolish ways.
And this is true not just under Trump,
it was true under Biden as well. You want to remember that Joe Biden is the president who embraced
Prime Minister Netanyahu after October 7th. Yeah. And fully supported the genocide in Gaza. And there were a
number of other policies including US policy toward Iran where President Biden misbehaved or behaved in foolish ways
would be a better way to put it. But the point is the United States is incredibly powerful and that's what makes President
Trump so dangerous. And it's also what allows President Trump um to whiplash
allies and adversaries alike to ignore international law and international institutions. He can get away with all of this because we are so powerful.
We're not, in my opinion, going to get weaker with the passage of time. The United States is going to remain a very
powerful state on uh the world stage and the only interesting question is will we
get our act together uh and act in responsible ways which we have not been doing for a long time. Uh I don't hold
out much hope in that regard. Um but I don't think it's uh it's a Suez moment.
Uh Suez moment. I think the Suez moment was just one giant step in the gradual
decline of British power uh over the course of the 20th century.
Great. Thank you, John. Uh and I want to thank uh Max uh Sophia
uh who produced the show. You can find me at chris edges.substack.com.

[admin]

Iran DESTROYS US Navy Blockade, Trump Desperate for Deal NOW | Sharmine Narwarni
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 72 minutes ago #iran #trump #israel

Sharmine Narwani of The Cradle joins the show to discuss the major moves Iran has made to break the US Naval blockade and how it has rebuffed Trump’s negotiations fantasy plus much more in geopolitics!



Transcript

Welcome back to the show uh everyone.
It's Dana Haiong. As you can see, I'm joined by Charmaine Narwani of the Cradle editor and columnist. Charmaine, good to see you again.
It's lovely to see you too. How are you fairing?
I'm doing all right. I'm here in Chong Sha, China right now. Uh having a good time. very jet-lagged but continuing of
course to follow what's going on in the world as uh things rapidly change. So,
thanks so much for joining me to do that today. Uh everyone hit the like button of course that helps boost the show and we're just going to get started right
away. Charmaine, let's begin with the blockade. Uh the cradle uh posted your
cradle uh posted that Iranian oil exports remain at a uh high despite the
blockade that April 2026 crude is being reported elevated uh out of Iran,
exports out of Iran despite this blockade. We also have reports about a shadow fleet of over 20 vessels, 26 uh
bypassing the blockade over the last week. And uh of course we also have the
uh the United States uh seizing now I think its second ship in a huge act a
huge act of provocation. But still a many people are talking about Iran being able to break this blockade over the
course of the last several days to a week as the Trump administration blows very hard about talks about obliteration
about uh not wanting to extend the ceasefire. So I just wanted to begin Charmaine with your reactions about this moment uh given these developments and
given how this blockade continues to cause many problems not just for any kind of hopes for settlement but also in
uh the fact that it feels like the United States is not really gaining much from this or at least uh uh much of the
gain is in the provocation. So, your thoughts on all of it?
Um, you know, I mean, the seizing a ship is obviously illegal, as is the US war in Iran. There are so many aspects of
this that are um illegal that there's just no, you know, you you can't rationalize why this happened today. I
imagine it happened today um because of of Trump's sort of maximalist attitude toward everything,
right? his uh you know lead with a threat attitude.
And of course um maybe even more so because there is no indication yet that any of the Iranian negotiating team even
their forward team um has left Iran for Islamabad. And don't forget tomorrow is
D-Day. Tomorrow is the final day of the temporary ceasefire that was meant to
3 minutesmake space for negotiations um which were based on Iran's uh 10 points and accepted by the US as such
and the US seems to have dialed back on most of these and introduced you know again no rationalizing
this behavior. So, I imagine this is why uh they boarded another vessel. It seemed like the one they they um they
shot the engine room out of uh and and have in their possession now is um was not enough. They needed to go beg or go
home. And uh and maybe that's why they're doing this on the eve of the last day of the ceasefire. I don't think
this is likely to drag the Iranians to Islamabad if there are legitimate
reasons not to go because the Americans have reneggged on everything essentially or rewritten the terms that they had
loosely agreed on two weeks ago. So I think this is why we're in the situation we are in now. Of course the two weeks
has given a lot of Americans I think food for thought, right? What is our president doing? Why is he flip-flopping
not just every day but every hour? Um and uh yeah, I mean we we kind of have
to um just watch the clock on this one because in fact by the end of tomorrow,
Wednesday, there will you know either be a deal or the war is potentially back on again.
Yeah. Maybe talk about this notion of uh dragging Iran to Islamabad. This like this need to do that. Um these are
supposed to be negotiations. So ostensibly these two sides will always be talking. But this this this approach that the Trump administration is taking
in terms of this blockade has been explicitly said to be uh almost like uh calling Iran's bluff on the
control of the straight of Hermuz and and forcing Iran to capitulate. But have you seen signs of this capitulation? I mean, there is a ceasefire. We've been
in a ceasefire, but this Navy blockade has essentially been going on almost ever since this time. And uh I'm wondering if you've seen signs of
capitulation and what you make of this strategy, for lack of a better word, of trying to push Iran to Islamabad on terms favorable to the United States.
So, there are a couple things. Uh before this uh the war started in February, uh there were already ongoing negotiations
between Taiwan and Washington and those had according to the Omani foreign minister um really
sort of um they they had essentially agreed on all points. Okay, like this was as done a deal and it was great
terms that the Americans would have appreciated and then the war happened.
o, it's extremely unlikely, and I know some Iranian commentators have said this, but I have to repeat it. There's
It's extremely unlikely that what Iran was prepared to give the United States
on February 27th will be anything like what Iran will be prepared to give the United States today. because on February
27th it was, you know, Iran didn't have any leverage in its hand in particular.
Um the only leverage was like, well, do you really want to get into a war with us? Right. Um having experienced one last June and seeing that, you know,
your Ursel ally Israel needed it over almost as soon as it began, right? Um this time Iran has far more leverage.
It's waged a war for almost 40 days. Um the Americans have been surprised and regional players have been surprised at
many turns of this war that not only has Iran persevered um thoroughly, okay, and and uh and
managed to uh ensure that the American neither the Americans or Israelis were able to attain a single goal. Don't
forget Iran wages its wars against a superpower like the United States asymmetrically. So its goal at the onset
is not to defeat America, right? But it's to prevent it from achieving any of
its goals. Um and then and then of course, you know, um sort of trying to
establish some kind of deterrence, you know, hitting them badly enough that they they never want to do this again.
So why would Iran even consider giving the United States what it was prepared to give them in February? on February
27th. That that deal on February 27th that was on the table and almost done
from what we understand was one to prevent war. And the US went ahead and waged war. It destroyed a lot of Iranian
civilian instruct infrastructure. It killed has killed over 3,000 Iranians now. Um and has caused, you know,
regional damage, right? and and so of course it's not going to get the same deal. So the Americans will go in and
someone like Trump, a businessman will be like, "Well, they were going to give that, you know, give us what, you know,
these terms before, so those are the same ones we can we can get today."
Right? That's not how it's going to work with the Iranians. And there's no um waffling on this. I mean, there is a decision-making body that decides this.
There aren't personalities who decide this. This is another thing that's been really nasty that the Americans have done in these two weeks of sessation of
hostilities is they have really pushed forth this narrative that uh you have elements in the at the top of the
9 minutesIranian political military hierarch hierarchy who are at great odds with each other and that's simply not true.
That's not at all true. Now, not to say that there are um people in the IRGC or in the Foreign Ministry or in the
Supreme National Security Council who don't think alike. Of course, they don't. You know, there's this is like normal for any country. You'll have
people debating things from their point of view and they have reasons why they think their point of view will work and
uh and and and why the their you know their colleagues point of view won't.
But the thing is everything is decided on by consensus. It is decided upon by the Supreme National Security Council
which was set up by the way after the June war last year um and whose head was assassinated by the Americans and
Israelis. Ali Laura Johnny if you remember. And um so you know the Iranians have been watching not only the
10 minutesdid the Americans um break their promises on Lebanon a ceasefire in Lebanon but right right out of the gate
right but they also um did not uh stop their blockade of uh hormones. Um and
then they've been trying to sort of sew discord among Iranians among the not just Iranian officials but the Iranian
population. Uh which is basically like you know the foreign minister has you know wants negotiations and is ready to
concede more but the hardline IRGC is not. That's not at all how it works.
they have they may have different opinions on things but everything is arrived at um with with consens by
consensus before any of these talks are being held you know so yeah I mean I think this is where we're at right now
and to be honest I'm kind of like excited slightly Danny to see if if uh the American team continues to sit in
Islamabad till the deadline through today till tomorrow Um, and the Iranians just don't show up. I'm just wondering
if anyone has ever done that to the United States of America anywhere, you know.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the United States doesn't often engage in talks like this uh that uh are have such
consequence. Uh usually uh the United States is not one to engage in legitimate peace talks and and when they
do, they assume that they're in a position of strength. So I mean this is yeah this would this would be
essentially standing up the so-called uh negotiations team of the United States which as Iran has made so many times
clear it does not really want to talk to the Kushers the Wickoffs of the Trump administration they they said they'll tolerate JD Vance but really it's after
that I mean well essentially because JD Vance is the only one left to talk to outside of Trump so
yeah it would it is very interesting that we are kind of uh you know counting down now toward the end of the ceasefire
and uh there's this dynamic uh Charie I wanted to ask you about that I read off
this this notion that Iran's oil exports have increased or are elevated in a time
when there's a blockade and there's these high-profile stories coming out for example you uh all report at the
Cradle that another ship was seized uh a Chinese link tanker uh that Trump has claimed has all you know parts for
drones and that uh you know he said something to the effect of well China did this well I guess that's war and China shouldn't be doing that but it was
a very kind of muted response what do you make of this dynamic of Iran is still shipping out oil and it's a every day we kind of see that that's happening
and yet there's a blockade happening which is creating these uh I guess
moments of express try an an attempted expression of US dominance. What what is this all about? Why if the US is running
running a blockade, why aren't they shutting off Iran's exports altogether?
Why aren't they doing this even more than just one here and another there uh you know in the last couple days?
So um the Lloyd's list intelligence u put out a piece today I think it was today that at least 26 Iranian shadow
fleet vessels have bypassed the US blockade um and uh uh in I think in so some of
this is Iranian cargo um I I don't know if it's all oil
related but here's the thing we knew knew at the onset of this that the Iranians had something like
150 million barrels of oil um in uh out in the open seas around the world
uh ready for their purchasers in the event that there was a war and things
you know and it would be dragged on. Um so they had they had their supplies there. Now this particular tanker that
was um you know boarded and taken by the Americans happened apparently in the Asia Pacific area.
This it seems was a tanker headed for China. I don't know that it had a
country's flag on it. Um I mean I think it was part of the shadow fleet. Now,
keep in mind that the US has no right to do any of this, right? So, US sanctioning um a country doesn't mean anyone else
has to abide and it doesn't give the US the right to act outside its own jurisdiction. Plain and simple. Right?
If they're saying Iran can't do what it's doing in the Straight of Hormos wi-i wi which is absolutely within Iran's territorial waters, then what
right does the United States have to go into the Asia-Pacific and basically um sees a tanker that has 2 million barrels
of oil and is reportedly heading to China. That was very brash if you ask me. If all this checks out, really you
want to take on China? You know, China has a number of naval vessels. I think it's in the Arabian Sea. Um that could be bought brought into play, you know.
Um I don't understand this American escalation at all to be honest. Um but
yeah, I I uh I think I mean Iran's strategy of being able, you know, gave itself the ability to sell oil because,
you know, not just oil from because Iran's been shipping from its normal channels, right, in the Persian Gulf and Iranian ports. Those have also gone
through the US blockade. Um but it also has the excess the surplus
around the global waterways and it's been able to sell uh its oil at a premium. Right? So there's two aspects
of this. Iran has made sure it can sell oil during a protracted war and that it can sell oil at a high enough price. So
it's almost like selling oil for four months instead of two because the price plus, you know, the ability to sell it
has has benefited. So they haven't they haven't lost a beat. I was reading today, Danny, that um the Russians are are are reducing production.
uh there we're not paying enough attention to what's happening in the Ukraine Russia theater because there's a lot of things that are being hit to
impede Russia's ability to move um you know its its energy resources and make
energy sales. Uh there there almost too many things happening right now. So this war in the Persian Gulf area, right? and
then hitting Russian pipelines um and uh and ports so that the Russians
can't put oil on the market. And then since the 1st of March, a series of unexplained and insane
fires, explosions at refineries on four or five different continents.
Okay, so you had I I mean I think we remember the refinery in Texas. We all wondered early on the war, could that be
an Iranian thing? But no. So several in Texas, um in Mexico, I think there's
three in Texas. Okay. in Russia, in India, um several in India, in Australia,
18 minutesuh Myanmar, I think just yesterday and today in Rajasthan, India, a um a major
refinery was was uh you know, caught on fire. Um and it was sorry, it was due to come online. So, it was going to be
launched. And then in Myanmar, a full tank a fuel tanker port explosion. Uh
and then in uh in in Texas today, an oil well fire blowout, right? There's a lot
happening right now that is inexplicable. And then if you don't bring oil to markets, a lot of the US
refineries go out of business.
Do you know what I'm saying? Um I haven't pieced together that picture. I just feel like there are, you know,
maybe the goal of this war wasn't just Iran at all. You know, it seems that there's uh there's something far bigger
19 minutesand more nefarious. It can't simply be to make the whole world dependent on
American oil and shale gas. It can't be because they don't have enough. But it is it is about, you know, partly about
if we're going down, others are going down, too. That is very worrisome. Yeah. No, that's a great point. I mean,
um, by by the way, since you're in China, sorry to interrupt, Danny, but really quickly, um, the what the crisis,
the global crisis caused by this war in in, you know, in being able to obtain
fossil fuel energy um has driven a lot of interest in clean energy technologies and China is a massive beneficiary of this. uh China's export of batteries,
you know, um electric vehicles and solar products shot up in March last month to almost $22 billion.
This is a 70% increase over March of 2025. Yep.
You know,
yeah. Yeah. uh and if you come here uh to the audience as well the
appar it's so apparent that China is more than willing I mean first of all I
I've been here I've visited now four cities so far on this trip and
nowhere is there panic about energy there's no policy there's no like a lot of countries are doing things right now
rationing various uh price gouging, this kind of thing to uh mitigate the losses
of of oil revenue or oil uh coming into the country, power generation, all that.
None of that is happening here in large part because China was prepared for this. China not only is China the world leader undisputedly in both consumption,
production and and trade of uh the renewable energy but it also is prepared on the other front for what is left of
its energy stock that is dependent only 20% dependent on foreign energy. uh uh they have piled up reserves to be able
to withstand any kind of shocks to the oil markets and Iranian this this strategy of trying to cut and I think
this is a part of it cut Iran off from China uh it seems that the the tankers that they're attacking uh seem to always
be targeting China Scott Besson talks about China with this blockade the for the purpose of it being to cut China off
from Iran Um, you know, Iran makes up a percentage of that 20%, a good percentage I
believe, of the 20% that it receives from the world. Uh, but it's still an amount that is reasonably replaced. Uh,
and that begs the question then as to exactly what you said. uh this is about much more than simply uh regime changing
Iran which is of course a big part of this war but there's huge global ramifications here definitely and it's just interesting that this is the way
that the United States is going about it because neither has the force behind it nor the effectiveness nor the um you
know even the technical and military might behind it to uh to affect the change that they want to see, which is,
I think, notable,
or the money, you know, I mean, if the US was going to pick a time to do this to disrupt um rising Eurasian powers,
they should have done it when they were standing much stronger on more solid foundations.
Um, you know, I'll tell you like I I do think a lot of this is to disrupt the Barri, not the Barri specifically because now you have the Arctic route,
you know, because of um melting ice caps, the Russians who have the world's best ice breakers um maybe the only ones
uh have have this alternative route to Europe uh from the you know, Asia Pacific and uh and then you have the
BRRI Okay. And those have hit some hiccups where the US has been able to twist arms um but not enough certainly.
And then you have the international north south transportation corridor whose principal um sort of uh investors and partners are
the Russians, the Iranians and the Indians.
And uh you the Indians are playing this very badly if they want to beat China in Asia by sort of you know undermining
their two partners. in the only major artery that they have going on in in Asia. So, um I think disruption of those
things, disruption of um supply chains for their adversaries,
but it's kind of like taking a machine gun approach to their problem instead of a sniper approach. Do you know what I mean? I mean, it's all just pouring out.
And I mean, nobody if anyone had any doubts about who who um bombed Nordstream, right? The the major Russian
German pipeline um Nordstream 2 that was about to go live. Um I don't think anyone has any
doubt today because we're seeing these kind of explosions happening everywhere.
If the Americans want to be so brazen as to draw China into it, I don't think China's going to give them the response
they want. Not to say that the Chinese will not engage militarily somehow. I don't think in a hot uh hot conflict
scenario, but they can certainly send their naval ships, right? Um to these
25 minutescontested waters and uh and sort of protect shipping.
Um the other thing they can do is and we're going to have a piece on this and um by by chi Chinese author um Cynthia
Chung coming up either this week or early next on how China is accelerating
the shift in global payment systems and why this crisis has helped that along so much. Uh I don't know if you know about
this but I think just a week 10 days ago the Chinese government uh issued a set of directives like new new laws, new
rules um that basically addressed if anyone um harm the national security interests and economic interests of
China that these new set of rules would allow China to immediately go into action and confiscate, seize, etc. you
know, um, reciprocity if you would. And I think they did that in preparation of what they imagine happening in this
battlefield in the region. So maybe the confiscation of 2 million barrels of oil destined to China will be played out in
a much different way than the Americans expect. And I don't know what Trump's thinking. He's heading over there next month, you know, and he thinks Xiinping
is going to give me a big fat hug is what the guy's going to give me. Yeah. Right. So, I I mean, I don't know.
And I I don't know if you saw that Wall Street Journal, was it the Wall Street Journal piece on like how Trump's making decisions, the sort of inner workings of
things, and how they're keeping him out of situation rooms because he's so erratic and impulsive. And this kind of
thing is I mean it's frightening that uh um the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff was it right Kaine I'm mixing them up now.
Yeah. No Dan Raisin Kane I believe his name is.
Yeah. Like walked out of the meeting because Trump wanted the nuclear codes.
But I mean this isn't like just you know alternative media writing it. This is a Wall Street Journal. So, I think there's
a lot of concern about Trump and how he's acting, how he's um how he's uh alienating staunch allies uh not just in
the Persian Gulf, which we should discuss really, but um definitely in Europe too. We now have uh I think four
or five countries that have joined Spain and Ireland's desire to um cut off the special trade relations they have with
Israel. you know, um there there's a lot of kinetic action happening and if we sat here for the next , Danny,
we wouldn't touch upon even the stories that are emerging today. And they're all so significant. All these things tie in um to what's happening around the world.
you know, policies are now,
you know, for instance, if if there was a ceasefire deal struck tomorrow, right,
right on D-Day, um you still wouldn't get for months what you need throughout Europe, throughout the Far East, right?
You you just simply it's not possible to bring the oil and gas online and transport it. It doesn't just start up
tomorrow. Okay. So, um I mean the the so if the ceasefire deal
was started, sorry, it was signed tomorrow, you would have shortages running well into June and possibly even
further. I mean, we've never seen any supply outage of this kind in history.
There there's there's no example. There's no playbook for this. Okay. So,
um, the tankers, the insurance, the whole process of getting there, and it's what like really needs to be explained to some gungho Americans who want to go
back to war with Iran, thinking that the US has and Israel have replenished their weapons in two weeks. They simply cannot
do that. They do not have the manufacturing, the production capacity for any of that. Okay? If you look at
how long it took between the Jan War and the February 28th war, you see how long
it took for Israel to replenish. All right. What? 8 months.
In two weeks, they're not replenishing anything of worth. But what it's done, I think, for I don't know if this is true.
It's my sense, Danny, that if I don't think the Iranians would do a ceasefire again like this. Okay. I I think if there was any other um potential deal,
it would happen during hot war. Um there is some concept obviously in the minds
of you know those immersed in the Washington bubble that by halting the war um they forgot about
all the stuff that went behind before it, right? the the almost 40 days of what Iran did and they know it it hasn't shown its hands yet, you know,
militarily. Um so it it it felt like they forgot that and they just started
um you know the discussions uh where they would with Iran as it was on February 27th with the exception of the
straight of hormones that was now thrown in, right? But that's not how it is. And I think maybe um some of the Iranians
have seen that this has given them a rest bite to to sort of like um you know to to to work on their narratives again
to be honest. Right. Um I I don't see this happening again. If there's no ceasefire this time and the war is back
on, I don't see that you would have a ceasefire unless a deal was um
essentially signed off on. Yeah. No, those are all great points.
and uh to the oil situation that you're outlining too. Uh, one of the theories I've heard about why the United States and some people have suspected Israel,
especially around sabotage, there's been a lot of actual sabotage happening also to um, you know, even outside of Iran's retaliation uh, legitimate retaliation,
legal retaliation um, in the laws of war to the US and Israeli attacks that targeted energy. But there were also acts of sabotage in places like Saudi
Arabia. Kuwait also experienced this and uh is now declaring force majour in a lot of its deals. Uh but this with this
there's been theories that you know a lot of the US's foreign policy and of course Israel behind in pushing too has been to try to cut off China from oil
markets to try to force China to buy from the United States. So, you know,
weakened Russia's ability through the attack on shadow fleet tankers, all this attack Iran,
you know, blockade there, the Persian Gulf area in order to uh try to cut off China from Iran, Venezuela, of course,
we know what happened in Venezuela, the kidnapping operation, the attempt to seize uh and control its oil. So, all of
this, that's what we're being told. But the problem is Charmaine is that uh China is not really interested in buying
really expensive oil from the United States. Actually much of the world does not love that does not love to to the idea of um oil becoming uh more
expensive for them just by buying from the United States. And this is not to mention that all of these activities especially the Iran war has raised the
cost of oil and uh that's in going to inherently happen if the US is actually attempting to achieve some kind of gas
and oil uh dominance in the world uh unfettered an unfettered monopoly so to speak. What do monopolies do? They raise
prices. So China's not going to go for that. And I don't know if there's some kind of calculation where the US thinks that China and countries, you know,
especially China will just say, "Okay,
we'll buy our oil now just because you've been harassing and trying to stop us from buying others oil." But I'm wondering what you think about this.
No, that's a very 20th century expectation. You know, um we're now in a
global war um for hegemony. Uh well for some it's for hijgemony to maintain or
expand it and for others it's literally to um to have freedom of you know of
movement of independence of making one's sovereignity sovereignity is back on the map
you know I think a lot of pe I I hear people calling themselves sovereign sovereign sovereigntists sovereignists
sovereigntists whatever now because um that's actually what people people are you know there's no left leftist
right-wing any of this right now we want to be sovereign we want to ensure I mean I think a lot of governments are having to uh tend to the needs of their
population a way they haven't right for for some time and uh and and and basic goods and services is obviously front
and center so I think um you know the world's going to change a lot and it's not going to all turn to buy um
monopolistic US oil and shale gas. It's just simply not going to happen. They're um
I I I you know, I don't even know how to explain this cuz because it's so weird to me that Americans actually can even
think that's on the agenda because have they not noticed this multipolar world
developing under their noses? Have they not noticed, you know, that there are countries in Africa, which they neglect
massively, right, that are doing things that they haven't done for decades, okay? um kicking out foreign forces,
shutting down their military bases, um creating production capabilities in their countries that didn't exist before,
farming tomatoes that they imported before, Nigeria, a major oil producing country, finally opening its own mega
refinery that actually works, right? And it's the biggest oil refinery of its kind in the world. And for the first
time since Nigeria sending its oil to the United States to be refined, then buying it back at exorbitant prices, the Americans are selling oil to be refined
36 minutesin Nigeria. Uh, you know, there's almost too many little changes to name. And uh
you know I think the Americans have lost the uh ability to analyze based on I I don't know what state department cables
from 180 90 countries around the world are coming to Washington or anyone's reading them you know people who are looking into the inner workings and
developments in all of these states. Is anyone even looking at them or do they go into the big foreign policy bin, you
know, in DC? But there there's kinetic stuff happening everywhere right now.
Iraq, for instance. Okay. So, we cover West Asia at the cradle. So, I'll just bring you like a a little tidbit. The
Americans warned if the sort of the umbrella organization of Shia political parties in Iraq, the coordination
network, if they um brought in Nuriel Maliki, a former uh Iraqi prime minister in, right, they had their elections,
37 minutesIraq had their elections in 2025 and they're still trying to decide president and prime minister, etc. Um they said if they brought in new Maliki, you know,
all hell will break loose. Um, so it looked last week that Nuriel Maliki was in fact going to be and then the
Americans Donald the we heard news yesterday that the Americans decided to freeze sending any of Iraq's oil
revenues that is by American authority only supposed to come from Iraq. Every time they sell oil
to anyone else in the world, it's supposed to be held in one US bank account. This is Iraq sovereign funds,
right? And now the US is saying we're not going to send you your money, right?
Um and so now there might be a compromised candidate. We don't know.
But here's the thing. By Iran stopping the war, it meant that the multiffront war stopped, right? And that meant that
in this space of two weeks, the US and Israel were able to
um either make gains or hammer at um Iran's allies in the region, Lebanon, as
we saw in , you know, 100 100 missile hits, right? Um, and then in in
I excuse me in in Iraq, that momentum that had suddenly been created, Iraqi resistance jumping to the four. We
didn't expect it in this war and pushing the Americans out, hitting the American embassies and consulates and US military
bases, forcing American troops into the Kurdish area.
Um, even, you know, seeing the Kurds deny Americans their greatest wish was to have armed Kurdish separatists um,
sort of flow over the border into Iran and start shooting during this war. They stopped that. All that energy stopped
the moment we had this dumb twoe ceasefire where the Americans reverted back to their, well, we're we're the Americans. We're in charge. We could no
you know I think whatever happens now it needs to go till an outcome till a
quantum change is established in this region at least. I mean, you hear, I'm sure, um, Persian, Gulf, Arab states complaining about the state of things.
Not only did the Americans tell them they were going to attack Iran, right?
Um, but they didn't even tell them that they were going to stop attacking Iran,
the ceasefire, right? Leaving them um to the mercy of whatever Iran wanted to do differently with them. So, there's so
many components of this. During this war, the confrontation between Turkey and uh Israel has heightened, right? And this sort of confab of of uh Greece,
Cyprus, and Israel versus Turkey has strengthened, at least in Turkeykey's eyes, right? What what happened uh with with Muslim countries during this?
40 minutesStrangely enough, Turkey got with Pakistan, which is a longtime friend,
and with Saudi Arabia, which is not a longtime friend, um, and with Egypt,
which is not a longtime friend. And they have this like the the, you know, a conversation, ongoing structural
conversation happening about how regional security should look like moving forward, you know, and these guys are probably going to determine it. And
you have the Saudis sitting on the fence. Why are they sitting on the fence? Surely they would like to sort of, you know, show their Sunni Muslim
might against this country that they've derided for so long. Shia, Islam,
Persia, right? But they didn't because I think they recognized straight off the bat that uh something was fundamentally
going to change as a result of this and American security guarantees weren't worth the paper they were written on.
that the Americans literally were um prioritizing Israel and not not their East Asian allies, right? Japan, Korea,
not their Persian Gulf allies, not their European allies, right? So, um I just think this needs to go on until
um all the other states play see their games through, see their changes through, and the Americans realize at
the end of all of this that they're pretty damn isolated. nobody wants to do business with them or unless someone
arrests Trump on or or or hospitalizes him cuz I don't know like by the way do
you know do you know if there is any authority that can stop a president
yeah I mean stop googling this everyone will be googling this right after if we're think about stopping a president from let's say war uh I mean
Congress Congress is supposed to be able to do that. Congress can't seem to muster up enough votes to even vote to even uh uh put put forward a resolution
42 minutesto begin that process, which isn't necessarily such a cut and dry process of okay, they vote and then they stop it. It it would take uh there would be
many more steps than that, but they can't even get to that because the votes are just are not there. And I think that's indicative of a larger problem.
Congress. Congress is the only Yeah. Usually it's Congress is the only I mean Supreme Court doesn't litigate this. Yeah. It would be Congress that
would uh be responsible for and it's supposed to be and Trump administration US presidents are supposed to go to Congress about war. uh never really
happens in this way because you know well it has democracy not after not after the 9/11 you know that's the
thing the yeah right um I wonder I wonder um I mean I guess a lot of people may be waiting for the
November elections in which there'll be a different kind of majority in Congress Y
uh yeah who it's it's hard to say but there's you. I wanted to get your uh
take now on these talks because I I'm wondering what you believe in terms of the Trump administration and
Iran. There's obviously a a dynamic at play that is becoming more and more
apparent as these talks uh continue to occur or not occur uh as the ceasefire
deadline comes. The Trump administration now some people might view this as theater as the Trump administration is just trying to put on a face is trying
to lull Iran. But the Trump administration right now is putting in a lot of effort to uh go to Islamabad to
have talks that you know we could say okay they have nothing better to do.
They can waste their time and they can continue on this objective of lulling Iran to sleep rebuilding biting time and building back up military strength. But
at the same time, it does feel like there is a desperate need for the Trumpation to have some kind of deal in
place to or for many factors that I I'd like you to get into if you could. So do you find that this is
these talks are really about the United States being in a a kind of desperate position or do you find that Iran has
played a kind of role in uh you know in facilitating these talks and then playing a a very specific kind of
posture that um has not really been discussed beyond uh the rumor mill and and whatnot in the
mainstream media but no one's really talking about well why is Iran approaching things this way.
Um I think the Trump administration wanted wants the war to stop. Well, I think Trump wants this war to stop. Um
but then every time he edges close, he wants um he wants to he wants a zero sum
kind of um result. And that's the problem because the Americans like the Israelis you know cannot think in terms
45 minutesof anything other than zero sum uh they don't understand the concept of win-win
the way Iran does the way China does the way India uh sorry Russia does they don't understand that concept at all so
I think every time he inches towards it he also has a number of different constituents who were you know whispering in his ear constantly
And it is, you know, we we do recognize that the Israel component is one of those, right? And they absolutely do not want the war to stop to the extent that
they will kill negotiators potentially um or um you know influential personalities who sway the political
system there in order to stop any kind of peaceful outcome. So this is what he's contending with on a daily hourly
basis. So, he'd like it to stop, but he wants it to be a um a zero sum kind of
win, right? Like it's it's all America takes everything. That's not uh going to be acceptable for the Iranians. They
fared so well in this war that US publications are calling Iran the fourth
power and for some reason they should capitulate. No, it's not going to happen. Um, also consider that because
Iran from the the outset has, and it said it countless times, we've planned for a protracted war. And a protracted
war doesn't necessarily mean just months. It could mean years. All right?
Um, which doesn't mean a, you know, wars aren't about bombing each other every single day. They're often about a bunch
of battles cobbled together at different times that form the body of a war,
right? And uh so Iran expects a protracted war. So you can guarantee
because ambiguity is the name of their game, right? The chess players of the region. Um you can guarantee that there
are many other military and intelligence um and economic surprises they have in store. they wouldn't have expended that in 39 days. They simply wouldn't have.
So I think it's just maybe been a bit of a learning curve for the Iranians because don't forget the only reason
they accepted the ceasefire and that went on till the 11th hour Danny was because the Americans capitulated and
agreed that all basis for negotiation would be based on Iran's 10 points and that Lebanon and Iran's entire axis
would be included in a ceasefire. That means Israel has to stop too. That you know um what Iran then subsequently
learned that whenever you plecate the Americans or put out an olive branch or decide to offer a goodwill gesture, the
Americans go straight back into their power bubble and they can't see the forest of the trees. Um I think this is
the impression we get from people. You also have to consider in Iran, and we're not just talking about the military
brass in Iran by any stretch. We're talking about Iranian civilians who couldn't believe in those 12 days last
June that Iran stopped the war without a negotiated settlement, just sessation of of fire. And that happened. Everyone
stuck to it, right? So that's why the Israelis knew this time they'd have to come in with the Americans and destroy Iran to such an extent that uh it was it was theirs for the taking. Of course,
none of that happened. Um but Iranian civilians also seeing for the first time in their lifetime time, right? Half
populations under the age of 35. um to then see everything that their government, their military, their
revolutionary guards, uh you know, their policy makers have put in place and being super impressed by it. Also want
to see this never happen again. And so you do hear from secular Iranians on the street often saying, "Why did we stop the war?"
And I think they are going to be in more of a driver's seat um come Wednesday
night because um whatever segment of the um Supreme National Security Council
decided to try this option are probably not going to be um well they may not be overruled but I think uh a lesson has
been learned by this body of authority in Iran. um in in the these last two weeks. So I I think um yeah um the the
negotiations what we've seen the various points back and forth and don't forget Danny we have no way of confirming these even if you
hear them from an Iranian official right uh well unless you hear it from the actual two main negotiators at the
table. Um, we've all heard a lot of different uh um I guess details about
what has been agreed to and what has not been and other things that we're not commonly seeing in the English language
media that have been agreed to that would maybe surprise some people and are outside the nuclear realm for instance.
So there's no telling, but what seems clear is that the US rhetoric is probably
different than what's happening behind closed doors. And I say this for one reason, one reason only because the Pakistani
intermediaries have been super active every day of this moment and continue to be active. So there are discussions still happening at some level, right?
And obviously the intermediaries, they know what the initial promises the Americans made were and Iran saying we're not going to we're not going to,
you know, we're not going to go in different directions from what was agreed on. Let's start with those principles. And then and one thing the Iranians have said is that there's nothing on this list on our lists, okay,
of things to negotiate over that is not solvable.
Okay, this is really important takeaway for your American viewers. The Iranians have said there is not a single thing
there that is not solvable. It depends how much give and take there is.
Obviously, the Americans aren't giving and we know that because the Iranians have not even got on planes to fly to Islamabad.
Even though Trump is promising do what?
To hit bridges and power plants immediately after. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, this is a is a veritable disaster. Uh it it seems and it it just seems like it just keeps getting worse and worse the longer this goes on. Um,
and I guess I'm curious, you know, in the last eight minutes or so that we have here, Charmaine,
uh, in terms of the larger ramifications of these talks and where they're headed
and, you know, it is a very kind of have your cake and eat it too kind of moment
for the United States. it wasn't in the driver's seat going into talks and now it seems like it's desperately trying to
wrestle its way back into some kind of leverage position over Iran. But um you
know it doesn't seem like that is happening and so yeah I guess I'm curious on your final thoughts here on
what exactly we can expect moving forward. It seems like Iran is preparing for a long war, which is why I believe at least it has engaged in, for example,
ceasefires like the 12-day war,
ceasefires like this now. Uh because I do believe that uh it is looking at this much further down the road than just what's happening, you know, 40 days in,
50 days in that it's looking at this.
This is going to be a maybe a year'sl long uh protracted war that has various moments where we have significant
escalation like we saw over five 6 weeks or so beginning of February 28th.
The reason why I didn't think this war was going to stop with a ceasefire at this point also is because there's
another um party to this war that the US has launched on Iran. That's Israel,
right? So any ceasefire would have to include Israel also seizing fire. Um,
and Israel is not likely to do that. I mean, during the course of this war, we learned that Ron Durmer, super close adviser to Netanyahu, has offered up a bunch of rules on Lebanon. Um, which is,
you know, zone one, we get to be in buffer zone, right? Zone two, we our military gets to be in to help like uh
clean out Hezbollah's weapons. Zone three is all of the rest of Lebanon in which the army, the Lebanese army has to
do what we say and we have the right to come in and bomb and do whatever. That's just Lebanon.
What about Gaza? I mean, all of this started over Gaza. What about poor Gaza?
Right? What about Iraq? What about Yemen? What about Syria?
You think Netanyahu is going to cave on any one of these things, let alone all of them? So, how can this war stop,
Danny?
How? And this is why it's not just down to an Iranian victory because this not
how um asymmetrical warriors and strategists think. They want to deny their adversary
um their objectives. Although we let's be honest, we don't know, we still don't know what the US objectives were in this
war. Um they also want to you know it's so I feel like the western world is
sitting on you know the edge of a cliff in a you know jalopy right and at the time that it's sitting
in such a precarious position it decides to do crazy things like headbang in the car you know what I mean like just
anything could happen and and uh they're doing this at a time which is very foolish for the Americans because there
are other global actors that have efficiency,
way more efficiency than any of the Western countries. China can build anything overnight. Guess what? Since
the Iran Iraq war, Iran can build anything overnight. Literally, they would bomb buildings in Tehran. This is
in the 1980s, and the next morning you wouldn't see debris. That's how quickly they move. you know, the trains, the the
the railroads that the Americans and Israelis hit in this war, they were back online within less than three days.
Okay? So, you have extreme efficiency on the other side. And so, whatever the Americans do, they're going to be
spending money. They're going to be literally expending all their military supplies. Okay? It's not just here. It's
also for Israel. Gulf countries are demanding stuff. US's partners in NATO and other countries in the in the east
are demanding stuff. Uh the US has no money. Um and uh the the US administration because of Trump is being
alienated. Everybody hates this country right now. And at this time they're going to
um try to keep up with Iran's twists and turns. It's not going to be good. Iran
will use this opportunity with its allies uh China and Russia to change all
systems that govern the networks in our world. Telecommunications,
um shipping, insurance, finance, all these things are going to happen during cover of war. And honestly, if it wasn't
this war, um it will it would have been the one fought over Taiwan. It's it's just inevitable. But this was too big a
war for the US to handle given its domestic state of affairs today.
Yeah, those are those are uh more great points Charmaine and I think a good place to uh uh close on. uh you know
here the one thing I've told my you know my context here in China is uh we are in a moment from you
know what I can give a perspective as an American who lives in the United States who studies government system you know the the system of empire the government
that reigns uh that that's at the reigns of it uh what it does how it works and
now I think we know that the United States is incredibly desperate to do everything that we have covered in this
show. It will enter into wars that not only can it not win but are likely to
accelerate this process of decline but it it will it will push further and further and further.
It's not necessarily going to stop or say okay give up. Uh it will continue on this process. It will continue targeting. Uh if it was as you said it
wasn't this war it was going to be the next war. all you know we know who the targets are but you know we've we've weakened the US
has weakened over the Ukraine war that took a long time why did it take a long time was Russia too weak no you needed
to change people's minds you know you needed to um suck out the the sort of
you know um deplete the militaries of your adversaries right and then the Iran war comes it's a whole different thing now you hit the world economy if the
Americans can even survive bypass this and go to China, it'll be, you know, the end of it. So I Yeah. But by the way,
you must you must have been asking people in China, is China going to do more? Have you heard any feedback? I'm curious.
Oh, yeah. I mean the the the the approach to that is uh you know China is very one thing I think we're to for the
audience to know about China is that it's it is not a country it's it's not a country that's swayed by external
pressures like China has a very tight disciplined internal system of governance uh that is
led by a very particular party this communist party and but it also has a governance system that has a massive
amount of bottom and top interaction that is really focused on China. So when it comes to China's foreign policy,
there's no breaking the non-inference policy. There's no there's no there really isn't a world event that's going to shift China's foreign policy as
one that really focuses more on development, focuses more on diplomacy,
focuses more on uh non-inference in the affairs of others. However, you know,
with uh the real focus I think for especially media in the context I have and media in the context I have you know
in general and theademies etc. It really is about uh enhancing
China's prestige, enhancing China's image in the world because how it's been dragged by the West, telling China's
story and a lot of its messaging and a lot of how it approaches conflicts like this is sticking to principles and a lot
of the times at least China believes that's good enough. The Chinese people believe that's good enough that will affect real change. it has uh but doing
more it would essentially mean that China becomes an active party to war which Iran hasn't requested and uh
essentially China has calculated that this would not really help matters uh at all really so
China you know China acknowledges its partnership with Iran it people there's
different ideologies of course of Chinese academics, experts, journalists,
everybody, they have different opinions on this. But in the main, everyone believes that it's China's right to supply Iran and trade with Iran with
whatever materials, whatever whatever whatever Iran does says it needs and whatever China is willing to give,
that's within the right of those two countries. And uh it there's no deviation from that. So
yeah, in terms of doing more, I feel like a lot of that for for China's kind of noise from the west. But um it
it really is this really is a country that just does what it believes is best for China and also what it believes is
best for the world and best for building stability and peace. And I think that's why we've seen China kind of operate as
both diplomat as well as a very key partner to Iran which I had mentioned and I I've been asking people about
this. They said look Iran uh what what what's really interesting is that China has especially around the straight of form moves issue is taken this
broad-based position of the straight of for should be open for you know free flow of trade and all of that completely
and at the same time it has only condemned the US blockade. So this is a very careful and calculated kind of
approach where Iran is not being condemned for uh directing control and asserting authority over the straight of
Hermuz but the US is being condemned for instituting a blockade and that is just
totally in line with China's policy of not interfering but also understanding what's actually happening here in
side is bread is buttered No,
and lastly, one last thing. And no, no one believes here that the Chinese government pressured Iran into negotiating with each other that that's
all fake news according to everybody here. And you ask anybody. No. I talked to John way. You can listen to the interview. He said no. Chinese
government wouldn't pressure Iran to do anything because honestly China would agree as a conflict as a conflict that
um really is so existential to China that it feels like it has to violate its own principles to affect essentially but
you're I mean look we we've seen we've seen a I mean we've seen a Chinese veto right over the state of harm too right so um I
don't doubt that China will sting when it needs to And I think we're going to
see a bit more of that. These this these new regulations I was mentioning are part of that preparation for what the
American beast will unleash, right? It's it's not going to stay quiet if it loses in Iran or doesn't far as well there. Um
but I do feel that while China sticks with this very uh sort of international law type of foreign policy like we're
going to non-inference in states etc. um that the Chinese are very clear on also
weakening their adversaries, right? They will weaken their adversaries. They'll find clever ways to do them, right? Well, what do they say of the Americans?
Well, you're going to tariff us. We're not going to give you rare earth minerals. You can't build missiles anymore. Do you know what I mean? I mean, this is it's it's a it's a slam
dunk. So, um I I do expect to see more like that.
But, um yeah, let's see. Danny, you know, if we're doing this in a in two weeks, Yeah.
it's going to be a very different kind of podcast, right? Totally. Totally. Total. I mean, yeah.
And and in China would see exactly what you're saying is simply making decisions especially on trade, economic development, and of course, uh,
relations with other countries is just this simply the best and only choice for its own interests. And and that is I
think the uh you know a really big takeaway here which is that China can simply just do
what it's doing and respond to these acts of aggression and attempts to manipulate the world order back toward
the US's favor as uh uh you know it can just simply react in a way that's best for it. And it has huge ramifications
for the world because it can weaken the United States simply by making choices that are to the benefit of itself and of course will be the benefit to uh this
emerging multipolar world which China of course has been leading and is very interested in ensuring continues to develop and strengthen. So Charmaine I
want to make sure that everybody knows that uh your publication that you edit and you're a columnist of the cradle is in the video description. Uh so people
should go follow you there. I believe your social media is also there. I want to thank everyone who gave a super chat today. I really appreciate uh all of you for doing that. Everyone who watched,
all the moderators of course who helped uh with the chat um and of course everyone who will watch this video now
and later. Hit the like button before you go. That helps boost the show and YouTube's algorithm. And uh until next time everybody. Charmaine, thanks so
much again as we head out of here. Take care everybody. Bye-bye.

[admin]

Max Blumenthal : The Islamabad Negotiations Are a Hoax
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom
Streamed live 72 minutes ago

Max Blumenthal : The Islamabad Negotiations Are a Hoax



Transcript

Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Npalitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, April 21st, 2026.
Max Blumenthal uh joins us now. Uh Max,
welcome here, my dear friend. Were you as scandalized as I was and as many people Christian and non-Christian around the world when
they saw that when you saw that video of the IDF soldier desecrating by decapitation the statue of uh of Jesus on the cross?
Well, I wasn't surprised at all. It was first of all a tribute to the work of
the journalist Ununice Tarawi who is sort of an open- source researcher and all he does is he follows the Instagram
accounts of Israeli soldiers in Gaza and southern Lebanon and they proudly promote themselves doing this on their Instagram pages.
Some of them even post these kinds of uh atrocity photos of themselves destroying homes on dating sites inside Israel in order to get dates.
That's how uh how just absolutely demonic
this uh this militarized culture is. So I wasn't surprised to but it was such a vivid illustration of what Israel has
done and has does and and has done since 1948 to the indigenous elements in its midst
whether Christian or Muslim. I mean, we have to remember Israel destroyed the historic Alomari mosque in Gaza City
during its genocidal rampage throughout Gaza over the last two and a half years.
It has destroyed uh the Grand Mosque in Bent Jabel, which is one of the major centers of resistance in southern Lebanon dating back to the Roman era.
just last week. Uh it destroyed another church in the town of Chama in southern
Lebanon last week. And this took place in the village of Deel, which is a
Christian village very close to the frontier with Israel. And it it signifies not just the religious
fundamentalism that has taken control of the Israeli army but the mentality of Zionism which
aims to eliminate all iterations of non-Jewish life in order to according to the the mission of Zionism. They they
they have its Hebrew term which simply means to Judaize the land. Um, and if you go back to 1948, for example, to June 1948,
when the Israeli military, then the Hagana took over a town called Al Al-
Birwa, which is a town in the Galilee, a Christian town, where the most famous Palestinian poet named Mahmud Darwish
was born. They detonated the entire town and blew up a historic church in the middle of that town. not necessarily
because they just hated Jesus and wanted to stick it to the Christians, but because this was an area of non-Jews, of indigenous Palestinians that was would
have to be replaced uh and its population would be expelled.
And that's precisely what they're doing in southern Lebanon. So to be outraged about this incident is to be outraged
about the Zionist Project of Greater Israel, which Hezbollah,
the Islamic Resistance Movement, the Shiite Islamic Resistance Movement, was
formed to defend Lebanon against and has successfully defended Lebanon against it
to this point. Hezbollah is identified by the United States government as a terrorist organization. It is absolutely
sanctioned in the United Kingdom. You can go to jail for praising it. Uh and I have, you know, colleagues there who
have praised the resistance and now face uh, you know, just they're harassed by law enforcement.
The Israeli army, that's our unshake.
Israel is our unshakable ally. But when Hezbollah was present in the town of Debel or before Israeli forces were
there, the Christian community was safe because Hezbollah was actually defending them. Now that Israel is there, the US
ally, the Christian community faces the desecration of their heritage. And it's been so
embarrassing obviously for Israel that they've had to announce that they're jailing these soldiers and that they are
going to uh force the soldiers that they've replenished this uh this Christ figure and and and reinstalled it as
they've destroyed all the surrounding villages. If you Google uh this incident, you'll find headline after headline just simply declaring Israel meets out harsh punishment to soldiers.
But all across southern Lebanon,
churches have become sites of desecration reached by Israeli soldiers who really represent uh the front line
of an assault on human civilization. I think it's here where we have to turn to the words of Archbishop Ven Vincenzo
Paglia. Uh he said this to the Italian broadcaster Lase.
What is this real problem today? The risk is that a lack of culture infects every other dimension of life. Religious fundamentalism or even civic or
political fundamentalism all shares the same route. A total absence of culture.
What matters is imposing oneself through force and violence. I would like to point out to Benjamin Netanyahu that
Jesus himself went to Tyra and Sidon in southern Lebanon. But he did not go there to kill. He went to multiply
bread, to heal, to perform miracles, not to destroy. I think that really highlights the
the fundamental divide that we see here between the USIsraeli Epstein coalition
imposing force on southern southern Lebanon and Iran and pretty much everyone else. And it's also the divide
between Trump and his narrowing MAGA base of sadistic bootlickers and
evangelical corporate Christian fanatics and Pope Leo and the Catholic Church who
are uh preaching these uh attempting to defend what's left of the civilization that hasn't been eradicated by greater
Israel. I have never heard recently u comments by a member of the Catholic
hierarchy so pointed and so direct toward Prime Minister Netanyahu and naming him by name.
Was this as a response of the uh to the videoing of the desecration of the crucifix?
Absolutely. But it's also denying uh Cardinal Pizza the oh right to um
the right to enter the church of the holy sepller on Palm Sunday. That church and the dirt under it is owned by the Vatican. It is not owned by the Israeli government and they wouldn't let him in.
Precisely. and they and they created some technicality as they let fanatical
uh you know apocalypticist settlers enter the Alaka compound in much larger
groups. So it's very clear there is a kind of there there's a kind of civilizational
divide emerging and Pope Leo is speaking on behalf of the global majority that is outraged by what
is essentially a war on human civilization with uh Donald Trump actually
expressing his desire to wipe out a civilization.
uh this is this is all that the that the Vatican is speaking out against here.
And uh I think it's it's sort of a great moment for them after having uh some
some pretty dark times in the past decade or so.
You mentioned uh you mentioned bootlicker. This will turn your stomach.
I'm not sure if he's the US ambassador to Israel or the American ambass or the American for the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Chris number 13.
And it has been an extraordinary opportunity for our country to stand with Israel and to be able to stand
against a menace that has plagued the world for 47 years. Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for the extraordinary courage,
leadership, and direction, and for the manner in which you have helped bring a level of direction to the world. Let's
hope and let's pray that the swords can soon be put aside for the plowshares.
But if there are those who are unwilling to put down the swords, it's good to know we have a partner that understands
that the plowshares have to be preceded sometimes by the swords. Blessed are the
peace makers, not the peace lovers, but the peace makers. a lunatic.
He's a smirk on Netanyahu's face.
Now, we have a lot to uh a lot to talk about. Let Let me trans I just wanted you to see that. And unless you want to weigh in, let let me transition.
I just wanted to say uh maybe we should call him dual use ambassador, supplementary Israeli ambassador. Yeah,
I we have to mention he's standing next to Javier Mille,
right? The Argentine president who is is is in many and also
a representative of global Zionism is a member of the Habad Lubavich cult which populates the inner circle of the Trump
mafia and who was in Israel to basically pay pilgrimage and to offer essentially
the bulcanization of Argentina as rumors emerge that he's going to provide benefits and immigration to 300,000
Israeli citizens as the Israeli water company Meccaro takes over Argent Argentina's water. Um, you know, some
pretty significant deals are being made there as Argentina is being colonized by this force.
Wow.
Was the um were the negotiations in Islamabad last week a hoax?
Well, of course they were well of course they were a hoax. The question is are there will there even be negotiations
again? Uh I I don't see any purpose in it. I wouldn't I wouldn't given the pattern.
If I were an Iranian negotiator, I would look at dual use negotiators Steve Witoff and Jared Kushner being on the
roster along with JD Vance and assume that this would just be another pretext
to paint Iran into a corner to justify Trump waging some surprise attack along with Israel. That's that's been pretty
much the standard operating procedure for this coalition. Uh Trump's threats,
his renewed threats to destroy power plants and destroy large swaths of Iranian infrastructure and universities
to totally destroy Iran, I think in Trump's words should mean uh that Iran does not submit to these threats. And at
the same time today uh in the so-called Indo-Pacific realm of responsibility,
the US Navy has intercepted a tanker supposedly belonging to Iran containing I think with like 2 million barrels of oil worth $200 million heading to China.
Uh that's an act of war. The So the siege the siege on Iranian ports is continuing. Trump is not leaving any
room for actual negotiation. The idea that there could actually be a durable,
workable deal with Trump under these circumstances seems ridiculous and it's pretty apparent as long as Israel's in
the room through the figure of Witoff Kushner and JD Vance, which I'll explain in a second, or uh through various other
means of manipulation and uh and leverage on Trump. They only understand
force. And so what Iran has to do is simply win a battle of attrition by maintaining control of the straight of Hormuz as the price of uh Brent crude returns today close to $100 a barrel.
Trump's rhetoric is failing to move the markets. They it is however uh making a whole lot of money as we saw before the April 7th ceasefire.
Another series of uh inside traders made something like a billion dollars. Baron these inside traders. Have they been identified?
Well, how is Baron Trump worth $120 million?
The only one who's been identified is Pete Hegsath because he's he's like the dumb guy who always gets exposed for everything. He's the fall guy. Um and he
15 minuteshad hired uh he had attempted to, you know, to cash in on stocks and his own brokers wouldn't do it.
Yeah. And someone leaked on him, it it appears. And so, you know, now he's he's feeling the heat. But Baron Trump,
um h how is this happening? It it it could be virtually anyone inside Trump's inner
circle. But uh that's the purpose of this war. That's the purpose of everything for Trump incorporated.
Nothing else matters. But uh back to JD Vance.
Yeah, we we talked to Netanyahu on the phone, but is there another connection we should know about?
Yeah. So he So So I I was actually watching Muhammad Morandi. I don't know if he disclosed
this to you in one of your many interviews with him, but with him him and Glenn Dies and he was in Islamabad about to fly out. He was with the
Iranian negotiating team and he called over a journalist who happened to be walking by in the airport lounge and said, "Uh, didn't you say that JD Vance
was somewhat favorable to a deal and we were um h making progress, working towards something and then at the last second it changed?" And the journalist
said, you know, confirmed that live with Glenn Diesson. Um, and it it turns out that JD Vance had gotten a call from Netanyahu and basically was told, "No,
you can't have a deal. This is daddy. Uh, I'm your real president."
JD Vance is also the chair of or one of the um chairs of the Republican National
Committee's finance arm. He's in charge of fundraising for the RNC.
And in between these Islamabad tourist junkets where he brings his wife, he's been meeting with the Mercers
and other important Republican uh donors across the country in at
17 minutesprivate gatherings. Another one would be uh Joe Lansdale, one of the co-founders of Palunteer, who says that communists should be hanged in the streets. uh
who's a big sponsor of Barry Weiss and her whole uh neoconservative Israel first empire. And apparently, according
to a New York Times report, JD Vance has been growing closer and closer to Miriam Aden through this network of Republican
fundraisers along with Paul Singer, who is also one of the most important Israel first donors to the Republican party.
And so it makes sense that Netanyahu could now get JD Vance on the phone and exert some kind of leverage because Paul
Singer and Miriam Matt are Netanyahu's cutouts and we know that they have been used to threaten Donald Trump
uh over, you know, his relationship with Tucker Carlson. I I'm pretty sure they've been used to threaten Trump or
to uh push Trump to fire to get uh Trump or someone to fire Tucker Carlson's son,
Buckley Carlson, who finally left the administration. He was working as deputy press secretary for JD Vance. It looks
like JD Vance has signed a Foustian bargain to become president and joined up with these Israel first forces when
he was marketed to all of us as a restrainer. The leader of the Vance faction who was opposed to war with
Iran. And so the Islamabad hoax was completed through this phone call by Netanyahu to JD Vance.
And uh that's a wrap on JD Vance. Wow. Uh I did not know about that.
Aren't singing and um and Aden the um patrons of Vance's likely rival Marco Rubio.
19 minutesWell, Singer and Adden helped create Marco Rubio. Singer's very has been very close to Marco Rubio. was the major
bundler for Rubio's Senate for Marco Rubio's presidential campaign backed his Senate races and then add came in as
well. Singer is also you know the bit the major supporter of the of the key neoconservative
commentary sites including commentary neocon think tanks like the Manhattan Institute.
JD Vance had been critical of those and now I mean he
is holding closed door sessions with these figures and raising money to propel his own apparent presidential
ambitions. I mean it was reported in the same New York Times article that Marco Rubio has no such presidential ambitions
and has not expressed any to anyone but I think Marco Rubio's playing a longer game. He recognizes that the more he
sticks his neck out and gets involved in the in this war and gets involved in these negotiations, it will hurt his presidential ambition. So, he's letting
JD Vance kind of take the fall and JD Vance has damaged him himself in his standing enormously.
Remember, by the way, JD Vance was not always JD Vance. He was like JD Bowman or JD Hamill. and he was once the mentee
of the arch neoconservative ideologue who is now a major never Trumper David from he wrote for David
from website and David from kind of brought him into Washington from Yale so in many ways JD Vance is returning to
his roots there wow uh let me ask you about um Trump and his
interpretations of the Old Testament which gather we're going to hear from him later today.
Or did he do this already?
So, sorry, I lost you there for two seconds.
That's all right. Trump uh reading from the Bible. Has he done that already or is it about to come?
Uh Trump is going to read Trump is going to read from the Bible. He can't make up.
Well, this is Trump, I think, has explicitly said that he's not a Christian. Uh I don't think he's familiar with the Bible. He is a
depraved figure who while um you know Mike Huckabe was playing bass with his church choir,
Donald Trump was hanging out with the Buffalo Bills cheerleaders at Jeffrey Epstein's house. And yet he's seen as a
divine instrument by a wing of the Christian right which is
now gathered at the Museum of the Bible down by Federal Center in Washington DC
and has been there all week from 9:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. doing continuous Bible readings.
It's it's a semi-public event. It's featured some White House officials. Ben Carson's been reading read there. Pete
Heg Seth Trump will read today. I should mention the Museum of the Bible is owned by the evangelical Chick-fil-A family
and it features artifacts that have been uh stolen from Palestine,
biblical artifacts in order to demonstrate this continuous Jewish presence that justifies Zionism. So,
it's a sort of a Christian Zionist museum. At 6 PM when Trump appears by video he will read from uh 2 Chronicles
uh chapter 7 verse 11. What is the significance of this? I mean the this
overtly the significance is that um it it the it will uh show that Trump is a divine instrument.
There's one verse uh chapter 7 verse14 which is most pertinent to how Trump's
cultists see him. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. So Trump
inhabits the role of Solomon in this passage. King Solomon, son of David, and the Lord speaks to him and anoint and and appoints him with healing the land.
But if you actually pan out a little bit, this section is about the construction of the temple by Solomon
according to the blueprint of David. And that speaks to the apocalyptic
uh cult that is increasingly influential in Israel, the third temple movement.
The temple movement which aims to establish the third temple on the ruins of the Alaka compound and then to
conduct continuous animal sacrifice as a form of authentic Jewish prayer.
In order to do that, they would have to uh blow up the Alaka compound and initiate a religious war by destroying
the third holiest site in Islam. So I there are multiple layers to Trump's
passage that are deeply disturbing and go back to the war with Iran which is
seen through an apocalypse apocalyptic lens as a uh fulfillment of biblical prophecy. the battle of Gog and Magog by
this set of endtime fanatics who are gathered at the Museum of the Bible.
And also this event is being held as a direct rebuke
25 minutesuh and repudiation of uh Pope Leo and the Cath there are few a few Catholic figures who will be
gathered there as well like uh father Frank Pavone who is a veteran anti-abortion
protester who has mostly held court with right-wing evangelicals and has been
estranged from the Vatican and the Catholic Church um and is just simply a Trump loyalist. And so th this is a
sectarian event uh that highlights the foreshadows a really disturbing turn in
the Trump administration at a time when Trump appears to be person on a personal level increasingly demented and
disturbed and reportedly had to be kept out of a situation room meeting uh over the downing of an American aircraft and
the potential loss of American airmen in Iran because of his temper and his uh
26 minutesobsession, his narcissistic obsession with how any policy decision would affect him personally. Uh, I mean, I
can't I I honestly I like look back to the Bush era, which I think of it as one of the darkest times, Bush being one of the worst presidents in history, or I
look back to the corruption of Hunter Biden, and it all seems kind of like um banal compared to what we're witnessing now.
And by the way, I mean, after after this, I might head down there to the Museum of the Bible, so I'll follow up with you.
Oh, I'm sure they'd love to see you in the audience. Max, do you give any credence to this report that Trump asked
General Kaine for the nuclear codes and Kane said no and left the Oval Office?
I I remember there was a story of like during the Reagan administration, they lost the nuclear football. Um, go ahead.
So, you know, anything's possible, but I I would be shocked if I would be I would
be shocked if Trump were allowed to have the nuclear codes at this point. And it
it there there is a there there's a plausibility there given
that General Kaine was warning Trump against this war and was clearly
internally opposed to this war early on but is now following commands as a loyal soldier.
Do you think that you have a lot of contacts in Washington? His inner circle recognizes his uh that he's mentally degraded.
I don't know. I and and I don't I don't have uh I I I can't really claim to have uh the best contacts inside the Trump
administration. I would ask Laura Loomer about that. someone who's um clearly mentally stable, has never been subjected to a Baker Act or institutionalization,
28 minutesand has boasted of getting uh very very intimately close to Donald Trump to friends. Um maybe closer than Melania
gets. Uh those are the kinds of um people that Trump holds court with right now. And you know, historically,
it's not necessarily the worst thing to have a demented president. Joe Biden,
for example, was I think for someone like Jake uh Jake Sullivan or Tony Blinken,
it was advantageous to have a demented,
weakened Joe Biden because they could impose their agenda easily. There would be absolutely no opposition. But with
Donald Trump, you have someone who's extremely forceful, but at the same time, um, appears to have completely
lost his bearings. And now as MAGA has collapsed or whatever, the grassroots of MAGA has completely collapsed, Donald
29 minutesTrump is turning to one of his last bases of support,
the the evangelical ultraright gathered at the Museum of the Bible who see him as a divine instrument. That's where he
feels comfortable, either there or with his within his family mafia that's making billions off insider trading on
this war. He's lost all contact with reality.
The uh New York Times uh is now reporting breaking news as it describes it. Uh the vice president's trip to
Pakistan is on hold because Thrron failed to respond to American negotiating positions. a US official
with direct knowledge of the situation said,
"Yeah, not not shocking." Um, something else that I I saw just minutes before
our conversation began is that Trump is discussing paying some form of uh war reparations to the United Arab Emirates.
I mean, the United States is falling apart. Americans are suffering
enormously from inflation, from the rise of oil prices, from the impact of this war, and they're they're not even feeling the crunch as much as, you know,
Europeans or Asians are. But Air Canada has already had to cancel flights to New York because of a lack of jet fuel. So
the this the um the crisis is just beginning here.
And yet Donald Trump is pledging to take taxpayer money and channel it back to Dubai
after Dubai got crushed as the consequences of the war that it was advocating. one this wealthy uh slave
kingdom run by Muhammad bin Zed whose influence network has been contributing billions
of dollars to Jared Kushner through its sovereign wealth fund and to uh the uh
sons of Steve Witoff through world liberty financial and to the Trump family through almost directly uh and
various other mean through Binance various other corruption channels The Saudis as well have been paying Jared Kushner billions of dollars. And
this is the character who is expected to negotiate in Islamabad on behalf of the United States. At a certain point, Iran
is going to look at this and just not even respond. Why? Why? not even say anything and just accept the inevitable,
which is that Donald Trump either goes back to war where he has no clear objective to achieve because the
straight of Hormuz cannot be opened by force or he continues this naval blockade and then simply lets it peter
out because the Navy gets exhausted and because he is going to get demolished in the midterms unless he finds an
off-ramp. And I think now would have to be the time to find an off-ramp, but there's no um there's no off-ramp from Donald Trump's crazy train,
right? Thank you, Max. A great conversation as always, my dear friend.
I know you have a tight schedule and of course, I deeply appreciate your accommodating this show. Thank you, my dear friend. My best to your family.
Thanks a lot, Judge.
Of course. Wow. Uh coming up if you're watching us live uh in at 2
o'clock Matt Hoe at 3:00 Colonel Karen Quowski just trust Npalitano for judging freedom.