Brigadier General Reza Talaei-nik, the spokesman for Iran's Defense Ministry
Iran’s Defense Ministry says the American-Zionist enemy must accept the legitimate and definitive rights of the Iranian nation, or expect to suffer repeated defeats both on the diplomatic front and on the battlefield.
Defense Ministry Spokesman Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik made the remarks on Tuesday in Tehran.
“Without securing these reasonable and definitive rights, the enemy will not be able to extricate itself from the quagmire in which it is trapped,” Talaei-Nik said.
He said Iran, backed by the field presence of its people, has demonstrated high capacity in both combat and diplomacy.
“If the enemy does not yield to Iran’s rightful demands in diplomacy, it should expect a repeat of its past defeats on the military field.”
Talaei-Nik said the repeatability of enemy defeats is predictable given the realities in the region, and that the Iranian nation, considering past trends, will be the ultimate victor of this imposed war.
He also said any new threat, aggression or violation by the enemy will be met with a decisive, final and regretful response
Trump's theatrical rejection of Iranian proposal reeks of desperation as Iran's leverage grows
“The repeated fleeing of US ships and naval vessels from the conflict zone shows the determination and capability of our country’s armed forces, both the IRGC and the Army, and they are fully prepared to give a regretful response to any aggression.”
The United States and Israel launched their illegal, unprovoked war of aggression against Iran on February 28, assassinating Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and striking nuclear facilities, schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure.
Iran’s armed forces responded with at least 100 waves of decisive retaliatory strikes under Operation True Promise 4, launching hundreds of ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as drones, against American military bases across West Asia and Israeli positions throughout the occupied territories.
A fragile Pakistan‑brokered ceasefire has been in place since early April, but a US naval blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect.
Tehran says it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the blockade is lifted and the war permanently ends.
Iranian officials have warned that any new aggression will be met with a far more devastating response than before.
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Trump's theatrical rejection of Iranian proposal reeks of desperation as Iran's leverage grows by Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk Tuesday, 12 May 2026 12:56 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 12 May 2026 12:56 PM ] https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/1 ... rage-grows
The exchange of proposals between Iran and the United States, facilitated through Pakistani mediators in recent days, on ending the third war of aggression has crossed into a moment of strategic reckoning.
Far from constituting a routine diplomatic impasse, the American response – specifically President Donald Trump's theatrical rejection of Iran's latest proposal – confirms an undeniable strategic reality: the White House is not operating from a position of strength.
Trump's subsequent sabre-rattling has once again laid bare the frustration and desperation festering on the American side. Such unhinged behavior is the reflex of a leader trapped at a strategic dead end, something even Western pundits now candidly acknowledge.
His refusal to accept Iran's terms, therefore, signals a simple but telling reality: he has run out of moves. What stands before him is an Iranian stance not defined by obstinacy but by the strategic leverage Tehran has accumulated through significant gains on both the battlefield and the negotiating table. And that leverage is proving unbreakable.
This dynamic places the United States in an increasingly vulnerable position. At the same time, Iran's leverage continues to grow, while its armed forces maintain a state of readiness for any eventuality. The asymmetry in strategic composure is becoming unmistakable.
The chaos of a cornered administration
Following Iran’s formal response to the American plan for ending the war that was imposed amid nuclear talks on February 28 – a response that firmly reiterated Tehran’s uncompromising principles – Trump’s public and private statements have devolved into a turbulent mix of incoherence and delusion.
Over the past forty-eight hours, the tapestry of American positions, as leaked to American, Zionist, and Western media, reveals a ruling establishment in complete disarray.
We have witnessed simultaneous threats to resume the military aggression, outright rejections of Iran’s conditions, frantic internal consultations, and desperate outreach to Zionist allies. Importantly, Trump has been spreading contradictory narratives, even claiming contact with Iranian officials, a claim that reeks of wishful thinking.
This confusion is not a strategic move but the noise of a befuddled man realizing that his “maximum pressure” campaign to get maximum concessions has failed. Trump has not yet accepted the simple truth that he has lost the war against Iran.
Fed a diet of false intelligence and sycophantic reports, he genuinely believes he still holds the upper hand in this war. He imagines he can dictate terms from a higher position, behaving in a domineering and condescending manner. But this is a dangerous self-delusion.
The aggression in his tone is inversely proportional to the options remaining on his desk.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/11/768433/with-iran-armed-forces-peak-readiness-red-lines-locked-trump-walks-ring-fire Press TV @PressTV Analysis - With Iran's armed forces at peak readiness and red lines locked, Trump walks into a ring of fire By Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/1 ... -ring-fire
From presstv.ir 5:34 AM · May 11, 2026
Psychological warfare or confession of failure?
Some analysts might argue that Trump’s belligerent posture is a calculated tactic – a piece of psychological theater designed to frighten Iran into submission.
According to this view, the threats are meant to force Tehran into accepting American conditions: surrendering its stockpile of 60-percent-enriched uranium and, most critically, opening the Strait of Hormuz. If this is indeed a performance, it is a desperate one.
Trump understands – even if he will not say so publicly – that he has failed and exhausted his options. Not a single war objective has been realized. The Islamic Republic of Iran stands tall and unyielding, while the "regime change" plot has been nipped in the bud.
Now, he is resorting to his only remaining and ineffective tool: verbal psychological operations. He specializes in this – bluster, threats, and feigned dominance. But Iran is not intimidated. It sees the man behind the curtain, a frustrated figure trying to impose a surrender document that has no basis in military reality. His rejection of Iran’s proposal stems from the agony of a gambler who cannot accept that the game is over.
Iran’s unshakable stance
Why is Trump so desperate and frustrated? The answer is simple: Iran neither negotiates from fear nor offers concessions to the aggressor. On the contrary, it negotiates from a position of strength and authority. It has laid out its conditions with clinical clarity and refused to retreat a single inch.
These conditions include the absolute, non-negotiable sovereignty of Iran over the Strait of Hormuz. They include demands for full war reparations and compensation, the release of all blocked Iranian assets, the complete lifting of illegal and draconian sanctions, and the annulment of international anti-Iran resolutions.
Also, Iran has made clear that any end to the war must explicitly include the resistance axis, particularly Lebanon, and a definitive end to the American-led naval blockade.
This is the language of a victor outlining terms and conditions. And it has had a discernible effect on Trump and his close circle of hawks who pushed him into this quagmire.
His unhinged outbursts and uncouth language are the last gasp of a bully who has met an immovable object. By rejecting Iran’s fair proposal, Trump is hoping to mask his own failure. But Iran’s insistence on these principles tells the world that it will not enter America’s psychological maze. Tehran will not be intimidated by insults or theatrical threats.
Press TV @PressTV Analysis - Trump's deadly trap: By rejecting Iran's proposal, US enters a strategic nightmare with no escape
It is essential to understand the nature of Iran’s diplomatic engagement. Over several weeks, Tehran has acted in good faith, exchanging modified plans to end the unprovoked war.
Some in the West might misinterpret this as a sign of fear. It is not. Iran’s willingness to talk means there will be no room for any excuses that it did not negotiate. It is a demonstration to the global public that Iran is the party genuinely seeking peace, while Washington remains addicted to war and economic coercion.
Iran has shown remarkable patience. And now, that patience has transformed into decisive clarity. By rejecting the proposal, Trump has proven to the world that he is not interested in a just and fair peace, only in a humiliating surrender that will never come.
This decisiveness forces the American side to confront an uncomfortable truth: the defeated party must behave realistically and pragmatically. America has tried the path of war and pressure, and both failed. The only way forward is for Washington to recognize Iran’s rightful conditions. But Trump, blinded by desperation, seems incapable of that recognition.
Geopolitical earthquake: The China factor
Compounding America's weakness is the timing. As Trump prepares to embark on his high-stakes visit to China, he does so as a supplicant – not a rival.
Washington has proven incapable of altering the war equation or tilting the diplomatic landscape in its favor. Consequently, it finds itself in an abysmal position opposite its most powerful global competitor. The inevitable outcome is the further consolidation of China's superpower status – not despite Iran, but as Iran's great economic partner.
China, like Russia before it, has fully grasped the value of partnering with a powerful, independent Iran that refuses to be bullied by any global hegemon – as proven in the past 72 days. Beijing recognizes Iran as a strategic anchor in West Asia.
When Trump arrives in China, he will be treated not as a triumphant victor, but as a failed actor still pretending to have won. This is the new reality. America's inability to break Iran has directly accelerated the rise of a multipolar order, one in which Washington's veto carries less weight by the day. Iran's growing leverage is now China's gain.
Press TV @PressTV Analysis: Decisive edge: Iran dismantles US levers of coercion, rewrites equation of deterrence By Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk
The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran recently issued a clear warning to the enemy following the new cases of American maritime banditry in the Strait of Hormuz.
The enemy attempted to move its vessels through the strait and failed. More critically, when the US Navy tried to harass Iranian vessels and disrupt Iranian interests, Iran warned that any new act of aggression would be met with direct strikes on American centers.
The result has been remarkable. Instead of escalation, we have witnessed a significant, meaningful calm in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
In recent days, there have been no reports of American maritime banditry and piracy or harassment of Iranian vessels in international waters. It is the product of Iranian military readiness and American risk aversion.
Trump may threaten war from the safety of the Oval Office, but his commanders know the cost. The calm on the water is a testament to whose navy holds the balance of resolve.
His rejection of Iran’s pragmatic and fair proposal to end the third imposed war is a strategic error born of desperation. He is frustrated by Iran’s growing strength, leverage and steadfastness, and confused by his own failing intelligence.
As Iran’s leverage grows, the United States finds itself in a position of historic weakness.
Alexander the not so Great: History through Persian eyes by Prof Ali Ansari Institute of Iranian Studies, St Andrews University BBC News Published 15 July 2012 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18803290
Eastern territories of the Achaemenid Empire, including Arachosia.
Arachosian soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 470 BCE, Xerxes I tomb.
Arachosian priests of Zoroastrianism carrying various gifts and animals for a ritual of sacrifice at Persepolis
Arghandab River Valley between Kandahar and Lashkargah
The ancient Arachosia and the Pactyan people during 500 BC.
Arachosia is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy in the eastern part of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Greco-Bactrian, and Indo-Scythian empires. Arachosia was centred on the Arghandab valley in modern-day southern Afghanistan, although its influence extended east to as far as the Indus River. The main river of Arachosia was called Arachōtós, now known as the Arghandab River, a tributary of the Helmand River ... Arachosia was a part of the region of ancient Ariana....
In Old Persian inscriptions, the region is referred to as Harauvati. This form is the "etymological equivalent" of Vedic Sanskrit Sarasvati, the name of a river literally meaning "rich in waters/lakes"....
Arachosia bordered Drangiana to the west, Paropamisadae (i.e. Gandahara) to the north (a part of ancient India (present day Pakistan) to the east), and Gedrosia (or Dexendrusi) to the south. Isidore and Ptolemy (6.20.4-5) each provide a list of cities in Arachosia, among them (yet another) Alexandria, which lay on the river Arachotus. This city is frequently mis-identified with present-day Kandahar in Afghanistan....
In his list, Ptolemy also refers to a city named Arachotus, or Arachoti (acc. to Strabo), which was the earlier capital of the land....
The inhabitants of Arachosia were Iranian peoples, referred to as Arachosians or Arachoti. They were called Pactyans by ethnicity, and that name may have been in reference to the present-day ethnic Pashtun tribes.
Isidorus of Charax in his 1st century CE "Parthian stations" itinerary described an "Alexandropolis, the metropolis of Arachosia", which he said was still Greek even at such a late time....
According to Arrian, Megasthenes lived in Arachosia and travelled to Pataliputra, to the court of Chandragupta Maurya.
The region is first referred to in the Achaemenid-era Elamite Persepolis fortification tablets.
With over 2100 texts published, the Persepolis Fortification Texts in Elamite, transcribed, interpreted, and edited by the late Richard Hallock, already form the largest coherent body of material on Persian administration available to us; a comparable, but less legible, body of material remains unpublished, as does the smaller group of Aramaic texts from the same archive. Essentially, they deal with the movement and expenditure of food commodities in the region of Persepolis in the fifteen years down to 493. Firstly, they make it absolutely clear that everyone in the state sphere of the Persian economy was on a fixed ration-scale, or rather, since some of the rations are on a scale impossible for an individual to consume, a fixed salary expressed in terms of commodities. The payment of rations is very highly organized. Travelers along the road carried sealed documents issued by the king or officials of satrapal level stating the scale on which they were entitled to be fed. Tablets sealed by supplier and recipient went back to Persepolis as a record of the transaction. Apart from a few places in Babylonia for short periods, Persepolis is now the best-documented area in the Achaemenid empire.
Elamite, also known as Hatamtite, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was used in present-day southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record after Alexander the Great entered Iran. Elamite is generally thought to have no demonstrable relatives and is usually considered a language isolate. The lack of established relatives makes its interpretation difficult.
Proto-Elamite is the oldest known writing system from Iran. It was used during a brief period of time (c. 3100–2900 BC); clay tablets with Proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran. It is thought to have developed from early cuneiform (proto-cuneiform) and consists of more than 1,000 signs. It is thought to be largely logographic....
The Elamite language may have remained in widespread use after the Achaemenid period. Several rulers of Elymais bore the Elamite name Kamnaskires in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The Acts of the Apostles (c. 80–90 AD) mentions the language as if it was still current. There are no later direct references, but Elamite may be the local language in which, according to the Talmud, the Book of Esther was recited annually to the Jews of Susa in the Sasanian period (224–642 AD)....
-- Elamite language, by Wikipedia
It appears again in the Old Persian, Akkadian and Aramaic inscriptions of Darius I [550 B.C.–486 B.C.] and Xerxes I [518 B.C.–August 465 BC] among lists of subject peoples and countries.
The scribes of the Neo-Assyrian bureaucracy had also used Aramaic, and this practice was subsequently inherited by the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BC), and later by the Achaemenid Empire (539–330 BC). Mediated by scribes that had been trained in the language, highly standardized written Aramaic (named by scholars as Imperial Aramaic) progressively also become the lingua franca of public life, trade and commerce throughout the Achaemenid territories. Wide use of written Aramaic subsequently led to the adoption of the Aramaic alphabet and (as logograms) some Aramaic vocabulary in the Pahlavi scripts, which were used by several Middle Iranian languages (including Parthian, Middle Persian, Sogdian, and Khwarazmian).
-- Aramaic, by Wikipedia
The Aramaic inscription of Laghman, also called the Laghman I inscription to differentiate from the Laghman II inscription discovered later, is an inscription on a slab of natural rock in the area of Laghmân, Afghanistan.... Since Aramaic was an official language of the Achaemenid Empire, and reverted to being just its vernacular tongue in 320 BCE with the conquests of Alexander the Great, it seems that this inscription was addressed directly to the populations of this ancient empire still present in this area, or to border populations for whom Aramaic remained the language used in everyday life....
In 1915, Sir John Marshall had discovered the Aramaic Inscription of Taxila,
Aramaic inscription of Taxila.
The Aramaic Inscription of Taxila 'is an inscription on a piece of marble, originally belonging to an octagonal column, discovered by Sir John Marshall in 1915 at Taxila, British India.
-- Aramaic Inscription of Taxila, by Wikipedia
followed in 1932 by the Pul-i-Darunteh Aramaic inscription.
The Pul-i-Darunteh Aramaic inscription, also called Aramaic inscription of Lampaka, is an inscription on a rock in the valley of Laghman ("Lampaka" being the transcription in Sanskrit of "Laghman"), Afghanistan.
-- Pul-i-Darunteh Aramaic inscription, by Wikipedia
In 1958 the famous Bilingual Kandahar Inscription, written in Greek and Aramaic was discovered,
... This bilingual edict was found on a rock on the mountainside of Chehel Zina (also Chilzina, or Chil Zena, "Forty Steps"), which forms the western natural bastion of ancient Alexandria Arachosia and present Kandahar's Old City.
The Edict is still in place on the mountainside. According to Scerrato, "the block lies at the eastern base of the little saddle between the two craggy hills below the peak on which the celebrated Cehel Zina of Babur are cut". A cast is visible in Kabul Museum. [T]he Edict.. advocates the adoption of "Piety" (using the Greek term Eusebeia for "Dharma") to the Greek community....
According to Sircar, the usage of Greek in the Edict indeed means that the message was intended for the Greeks living in Kandahar, while the usage of Aramaic was intended for the Iranian populations of the Kambojas....
At Alexandria-in-Arachosia (mod. Kandahar) a bilingual Greek-Aramaic text, urging vegetarianism and filial piety, was cut into the cliff face by the side of the main trade road. The inscription demonstrates a keen awareness of the culturally specific traditions and languages of the region's "Yona and Kamboja" (Greek and Persian) populations: the Greek version combines vocabulary appropriate to oracular pronouncement and contemporary philosophy, while the Aramaic version, heavily influenced by Old Persian, assimilates dhamma to Zoroastrian truth.
Ten years (of reign) having been completed, King Piodasses made known (the doctrine of) Piety (εὐσέβεια, Eusebeia) to men; and from this moment he has made men more pious, and everything thrives throughout the whole world. And the king abstains from (killing) living beings, and other men and those who (are) huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they have ceased from their intemperance as was in their power; and obedient to their father and mother and to the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on every occasion, they will live better and more happily."...
-- Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription, by Wikipedia
In the same year 1963 and again in Kandahar, an inscription in "Indo-Aramaic" known as the Kandahar Aramaic inscription or Kandahar II was found, in which the Indian Prakrit language and the Aramaic language alternate, but using only the Aramaic script....
The chronologically next reference to Arachosia comes from the Greeks and Romans, who record that under Darius III the Arachosians and Drangians were under the command of a governor who, together with the army of the Bactrian governor, contrived a plot of the Arachosians against Alexander (Curtius Rufus 8.13.3). Following Alexander's conquest of the Achaemenids, the Macedonian appointed his generals as governors (Arrian 3.28.1, 5.6.2; Curtius Rufus 7.3.5; Plutarch, Eumenes 19.3; Polyaenus 4.6.15; Diodorus 18.3.3; Orosius 3.23.1 3; Justin 13.4.22).
Circa 330 BC, Alexander the Great King of Macedonia, on his horse Boucephalus
Alexander the Great is portrayed as a legendary conqueror and military leader in Greek-influenced Western history books but his legacy looks very different from a Persian perspective.
Any visitor to the spectacular ruins of Persepolis - the site of the ceremonial capital of the ancient Persian Achaemenid empire, will be told three facts: it was built by Darius the Great, embellished by his son Xerxes, and destroyed by Alexander.
That man Alexander, would be the Alexander the Great, feted in Western culture as the conqueror of the Persian Empire and one of the great military geniuses of history.
Indeed, reading some Western history books one might be forgiven for thinking that the Persians existed to be conquered by Alexander.
A more inquisitive mind might discover that the Persians had twice before been defeated by the Greeks during two ill-fated invasions of Greece, by Darius the Great in 490BC and then his son, Xerxes, in 480BC - for which Alexander's assault was a justified retaliation.
Alexander the Great razed the ancient city of Persepolis
But seen through Persian eyes, Alexander is far from "Great".
He razed Persepolis to the ground following a night of drunken excess at the goading of a Greek courtesan, ostensibly in revenge for the burning of the Acropolis by the Persian ruler Xerxes.
Persians also condemn him for the widespread destruction he is thought to have encouraged to cultural and religious sites throughout the empire.
The emblems of Zoroastrianism - the ancient religion of the Iranians - were attacked and destroyed. For the Zoroastrian priesthood in particular - the Magi - the destruction of their temples was nothing short of a calamity.
The influence of Greek language and culture has helped establish a narrative in the West that Alexander's invasion was the first of many Western crusades to bring civilisation and culture to the barbaric East.
But in fact the Persian Empire was worth conquering not because it was in need of civilising but because it was the greatest empire the world had yet seen, extending from Central Asia to Libya.
Persia was an enormously rich prize.
Look closely and you will find ample evidence that the Greeks admired the Persian Empire and the emperors who ruled it.
Much like the barbarians who conquered Rome, Alexander came to admire what he found, so much so that he was keen to take on the Persian mantle of the King of Kings.
And Greek admiration for the Persians goes back much earlier than this.
Xenophon, the Athenian general and writer, wrote a paean to Cyrus the Great - the Cyropaedia - showering praise on the ruler who showed that the government of men over a vast territory could be achieved by dint of character and force of personality:
"Cyrus was able to penetrate that vast extent of country by the sheer terror of his personality that the inhabitants were prostrate before him…," wrote Xenophon, "and yet he was able at the same time, to inspire them all with so deep a desire to please him and win his favour that all they asked was to be guided by his judgment and his alone.
"Thus he knit to himself a complex of nationalities so vast that it would have taxed a man's endurance merely to traverse his empire in any one direction."
Later Persian emperors Darius and Xerxes both invaded Greece, and were both ultimately defeated. But, remarkably, Greeks flocked to the Persian court.
The most notable was Themistocles, who fought against Darius's invading army at Marathon and masterminded the Athenian victory against Xerxes at Salamis.
Falling foul of Athenian politics, he fled to the Persian Empire and eventually found employment at the Persian Court and was made a provincial governor, where he lived out the rest of his life.
In time, the Persians found that they could achieve their objectives in Greece by playing the Greek city states against each other, and in the Peloponnesian War, Persian money financed the Spartan victory against Athens.
Achaemenid soldiers, seen in wall-carvings in Persepolis
The key figure in this strategy was the Persian prince and governor of Asia Minor, Cyrus the Younger, who over a number of years developed a good relationship with his Greek interlocutors such that when he decided to make his fateful bid for the throne, he was able to easily recruit some 10,000 Greek mercenaries.
Unfortunately for him, he died in the attempt.
Soldier, historian and philosopher Xenophon was among those recruited, and he was full of praise for the prince of whom he said: "Of all the Persians who lived after Cyrus the Great, he was most like a king and the most deserving of an empire."
There is a wonderful account provided by Lysander, a Spartan general, who happened to visit Cyrus the Younger in the provincial capital at Sardis.
Lysander recounts how Cyrus treated him graciously and was particularly keen to show him his walled garden - the origin of our word paradise - where Lysander congratulated the prince on the beautiful design.
When, he added, that he ought to thank the slave who had done the work and laid out the plans, Cyrus smiled and pointed out that he had laid out the design and even planted some of the trees.
On seeing the Spartan's reaction he added: "I swear to you by Mithras that, my health permitting, I never ate without having first worked up a sweat by undertaking some activity relevant either to the art of war or to agriculture, or by stretching myself in some other way."
Astonished, Lysander applauded Cyrus and said: "You deserve your good fortune Cyrus - you have it because you are a good man."
Alexander would have been familiar with stories such as these. The Persian Empire was not something to be conquered as much as an achievement to be acquired.
Although Alexander is characterised by the Persians as a destroyer, a reckless and somewhat feckless youth, the evidence suggests that he retained a healthy respect for the Persians themselves.
Alexander came to regret the destruction his invasion caused. Coming across the plundered tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargad, a little north of Persepolis, he was much distressed by what he found and immediately ordered repairs to be made.
Had he lived beyond his 32 years, he may yet have restored and repaired much more. In time, the Persians were to come to terms with their Macedonian conqueror, absorbing him, as other conquerors after him, into the fabric of national history.
Trump’s worst fears come true as Iran threatens to obtain nuclear weapons | Janta Ka Reporter by Rifat Jawaid Janta Ka Reporter May 12, 2026
A prominent Iranian lawmaker on Tuesday said that his country would increase the uranium enrichment to 90% if the US attacks the Islamic Republic again. Iran needs to take enrichment level from the current 60% to the 90% threshold for weapons-grade material. This would cause immense concern in the US administration as this is the first time Iran has publicly stated its ambition to go nuclear. Rifat Jawaid examines the significance of this development
Transcript
Chapter 1: Intro Iran has finally threatened to acquire nuclear weapons. This is the first time anyone from the Iranian establishment has publicly threatened to increase its nuclear enrichment capacity to 90% and beyond in order to acquire atom bomb. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's uncouthed secretary Pete Hex has made a fool of himself during his testimony at the Senate Defense Committee. Also making a fool of himself has been Israeli asset in the US Senate Lindsey Graham. In the UK, genocide loving Labor Prime Minister Kmer is clutching at straws to save his job, but this is increasingly becoming a losing battle for him. The BBC faces further shame for its decision to edit out the criticism of the rogue settler colony by the winners of the Ghaza documentary at this year's BAFTA award. We now have the evidence. 1 minuteThis would be the broad focus of my video tonight. Also in this video, the Barcelona football club celebrates Lamin Yamal for hoisting the Palestinian flag during the open top bus parade. So please stay tuned. Chapter 2: Iran's nuclear ambitions So Iran has made America's worst fears come true. This is a classic case of crying wolf. For 40 plus years, America and the illegal settler colony lied about Iran's intention to build nuclear weapons. Even though the Islamic Republic followed the Supreme Leader's fatwa against acquiring nuclear weapons, the deranged occupant of the White House, Donald Trump, even launched an illegal war on 28th of February against Iran to please his terrorist Israeli master Benjamin Netanyahu. Now a top government official in Iran has finally expressed his country's intention to go nuclear if the US and Israeli terrorist didn't mend their ways. Ibrahim Razai, he's an MP for Dashtan and spokesperson for the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. He wrote on X today that Iran will not shy away from attaining 90% enrichment of uranium which is required for achieving the weapons grade if the US attacks his country again. He wrote and I quote, "One of Iran's options in the event of another attack could be 90% enrichment. We will review it in the parliament." End quote. Now this is huge given that Iran has already kept a stockpile of 450 kgs of uranium enriched up to 60%. Experts would tell you that it's only a matter of a few weeks to take this to 90% enrichment. This announcement would make plenty of Iranian supporters happy since they have long urged the Islamic Republic to withdraw the fatwa and achieve its nuclear ambitions. Given that the person who issued that fatwa is no more I'm talking about the late supreme leader at Ali Kame many expected the new supreme leader his son to embark on the nuclear journey but credit to the Iranian military that Chapter 3: Power of Iranian military despite several handicaps it has managed to give grief to its enemies by simply maintaining an effective chokeold of the state of almost this single decision has sent shock waves throughout the world. As the global economy faces extremely bleak prospects due to rising fuel prices, even American lawmakers are now acknowledging the power of Iran, visav the US. This is Senator Chris Murphy on CNN today. This is not a stalemate. This is a disaster for the United States. Iran is much more powerful today than they were at the beginning of this conflict. Notwithstanding the damage that we have done to Iran, the intelligence reports suggest, and this has been publicly reported, that they still have the majority of their missiles, the majority of their drones. Uh they still have a nuclear program and anytime they want, they can reopen military operations in the Strait of Formoose. I don't know what the president is going to do. I'm out of the business of trying to predict what he is doing. But I don't think we have ever seen a more incompetent, ham-handed military operation side by side with the most ham-handed, incompetent diplomatic effort in the history of this country. And we've had some pretty miserable military engagements overseas. So, I just think this is a disaster for American national security. I think the best pro prospect is for the president to end the blockade and declare an end to the war right now and hope that some other nations um that are smarter and better than the current leadership of the United States will be able to use effective diplomacy to get the straight reopened. American military veteran Colonel Douglas McGregor calls Iran a heroic state. the rest of the world looks at what's happening and says Iran is an heroic state because it's standing up to the great bully, the United States and Israel. So virtually everyone is sympathetic and everyone who can help the Iranians is doing so. And so the Iranians have prepared themselves brilliantly for this next phase which is now coming. And I think it'll probably start within the next . Wow. And why will it start? Because you cannot keep all these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines out there indefinitely. They'll lose their edge. They'll wear out. You can't do that. You've got to send them into action or you have to disengage and withdraw. And I see no evidence that we're prepared to do that. And this whole blockade thing was a farce. It never had any chance of success. We're sitting what, 300 miles, 400 miles, 500 miles south and away from the entrance to the Persian Gulf. We have, comparatively speaking, a handful of ships. We're trying to fly over the area and control it. It can't be done. I mean, you can control some of it, but not all of it. I'm sure Trump and his minions would now call Murphy and McGregor antinations for speaking the truth. But the reality is that even Trump and his fellow thugs in his government would be privately acknowledging the same fact. But they have to keep peddling lies against Iran to justify their reckless military adventurism. Pete Hex appeared Chapter 4: Hegseth faces heat at Senate before the Senate's Defense Budget Committee today. It took just one grilling session by Senator Chris for this thug to lose his mind. In response to one question, Hexath even claimed that Iran had an aircraft carrier. Watch it for yourself. Because Iran retains a robust stockpile of cheap lethal shahed drones and they are getting help from our adversaries in rebuilding them. What is your plan for reopening the straight of Hormuz? Mr. Secretary, I would just note that the majority of your question was highly disingenuous and loaded with suggestions that I very much don't agree with. Uh from the beginning, please feel free sir to pick any one of those. From the beginning, we've been very clear about the military objectives and the underlying strategic objective which is preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Yes. Take for example the fact that Iranians n conventional navy, they had aircraft carriers with shahed drones on them before this started. They had full-on destroyers and battleship capabilities, none of which they they have anymore. 8 minutesAnd did the Iranian Navy have aircraft carriers? Iranian Navy had three drone aircraft carriers. The Iranian Navy had 11 subatforms for drones. Sure. It had 11 submarines. sunk all of regular navy. Great. Good. They they retain fastboat capabilities which they've always had. We understand that. Which we can control for and will. We've degraded almost completely their defense industrialbased capabilities. The idea that they control anything. You can terrorize something. You can hold it at issue with piracy as I've talked about at the Pentagon podium time and time again. That doesn't mean you control it. We control what goes in and out. And we control whether or not we have to restart conflict. The president does as well. Mr. we're the ones that will manage where this goes in the future with and they have very limited ability to set the tempo or respond to it and that gives the president a lot of options to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Um the connection between their ability to close the straight of Horu Homus using fast boats and shahed drones and our strategic goal shared broadly to prevent them from ever having a usable nuclear weapon is utterly unclear to me. And my question was what's the plan for reopening the straight of Hormuz to commercial traffic given but never executed shared broadly but never executed because previous administration didn't have the willingness to actually do what it would take and when Iran was at its weakest moments following the 12-day war but still wanted the pursuit of a nuclear capability. President Trump made the courageous decision to go at their conventional umbrella and shield which they were using to protect their nuclear program which we knew came with threats and and branches and sequels. My concern, Mr. Secretary, is that you've achieved a series of tactical successes but are on the verge of a strategic loss because we are now negotiating. Just think it's so foolish. Here we are in a committee in the United States Senate 74 days in and you're talking about strategic loss. We have the ability to defeat a 47-year threat of a pursuit of a nuclear weapon. We have more leverage than we've ever had. We've had incredible battlefield successes. And you're talking about a strategic loss disingenuous questions. Mr. Secretary, this is how you undercut that could otherwise and are otherwise not your enemy, sir. I am not your adversary. I share your goal of preventing Iran from ever having a usable nuclear weapon. To finish my sentence, control of the straight of Hormuz, the ability to degrade our partners and allies gas and oil production capabilities through cheap drones, the ability to harass and harry commercial shipping remains in Iran's hands. Chapter 5: Lindsey Graham angry on Iran Today's Senate hearing also witnessed a comedy circus of sorts as Israeli asset Lindsey Graham lost his mind while seeking information from Hexith and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff General Dan Kin Graham whose sole purpose in the Senate and outside appears to be working for the genocidal settler colony of Israel wanted to know 11 minutesif Iran indeed had quietly parked all its military aircrafts in Pakistan. During the conflict, neither Hexath nor General Kaine had any satisfying answer, which didn't go down well with this supporter of genocide. I'm talking about Lindsey Graham. Pakistan, uh, are you aware of reports that Pakistan are are allowing their bases to be used to park Iranian aircraft? Uh, General Kaine. Sir, I've I've uh I've seen one report on that. Well, is it accurate? Um sir, I think uh based on the variety of classific classification matters. Let me just say do you agree if it is accurate that is sort of inconsistent with it being a peace mediator? Sir, I wouldn't want to comment on that based on the ongoing negotiations in Pakistan. Secretary Secretary Hexus, if if the mediator is allowing reconnaissance aircraft Iran to be parked in Pakistani air bases, do you think that's consistent with being a fair mediator? Um I again I wouldn't want to get in the middle of these negotiations. I want maxacy. I do I want to get in the middle of these negotiations. I don't trust Pakistan as far as I can throw them. If they actually do have Iranian aircraft parked in Pakistan bases to protect Iranian military assets, that tells me we should be looking maybe for somebody else to mediate. No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere. So, you know, I appreciate all you've done. I'm very supportive of it. But when it comes to Pakistan and China, enough already. Thank you. Chapter 6: Dan Bilzerian plans on Israel First Gaza and now the Iran conflict have made Americans realize that their politicians had been lying to them for decades about Palestinians, Iranians, and Muslims at large. Now more and more Americans, particularly from the younger generation, view the settler colony as an entity which loves to commit holocaust and drags the US to fight its illegal wars in West Asia. This has become a matter of concern for Israeli terrorists, but they don't know how to deal with this negative perception. They thought this would change once Zionist Larry Ellison manipulates his way to take over the Chinese social media platform Tik Tok. But even this hasn't changed anything. You only have to watch the latest statement of congressional candidate Dan Bilzerian. Watch what he had to say to Alex Jones. This is a nuclear explosion on its own. If you were the president, what would you do? I would declare war on Israel. I would cut off I mean at a minimum I would cut off all foreign aid. I would let Iran have free will to do what they want with Israel. Um I would kind of let the problem take care of itself to be honest because if we stop defending Israel, I think they would get what they deserve. Um they have been persecuting these Palestinians. They've been operating apartheid. They've attacked all their neighbors. I mean, they bombed seven countries in a year. Um they continue to just um just have unprovoked aggression. I mean, they are a a total terrorist nation. I just don't understand how they're not qualified as terrorist nation. They have nukes. They acquired them illegally. They refuse to sign the nuclear non-prololiferation treaty. And um and they said that they would just kill everybody if they if they feel threatened. So like, please tell me, Alex, how does that not make them the greatest terrorist threat to the world today? Chapter 7: British PM faces massive revolt Such is the frustration of the Trump regime that it continues to seek global support against Iran. After being snubbed by NATO countries, the US has now increased pressure on Gulf allies by asking to choose between Iran and Israel. This is precisely what Israeli slave Mike Hakabe said today. Do you need any more evidence on the growing frustration of Trump and his minions? One of the countries who Trump expected to blindly support him against Iran was the UK. But the pro-Genocide British Prime Minister Kmer is facing the biggest test of his own political career. Now close to 90 yes 90 MPs have revolted against him and several ministers resigned. demanding his ouster. You can't live in peace after supporting the mass murder of unarmed and defenseless Palestinians. Watch this Sky News broadcast to understand what's going on in the corridors of power in the UK over this issue. It took one humiliating defeat in the local body polls for rats to start deserting the ship. I'm going to show you why this revolt is all but impossible for Karmama to come back from. It started on Saturday evening with Katherine West. You might not know who she is, but she opened the floodgates. Initially, Labour rebels were pretty much usual suspects. John McDonald, you've heard of him, Richard Bergenhees of the left, Clive Lewis of the soft left, and you can see even younger members of the soft left, Connor Smith. But I don't think Downing Street would have been particularly worried at that point. But then on Monday morning after the prime minister's speech, it started to change. veteran former ministers like Katherine McKinnel. But then the spread started across the generations and across the different factions. You have Chris Curtis. He is a new integr. You've got the youngest MP for Labour, Sam Carling, the oldest MP for Labour, Clive Bett. He's been in since 1992. You can see that there are some of the freshest faces, the people who are the next generation of the Labour Party. But it was Monday evening that the trouble 17 minutesreally started with members of the government with this guy. Where's streetings? PPS. That's a junior ministerial role. More junior ministerial roles. Tom Rutland, Sally Jameson, Melanie Ward. And then on Tuesday, ministers started to come out. Miata Fambula close to Edmand and to Andy Burnham. She's the most famous face so far to resign. That's Jess Phillips. Alex Davies Jones, another minister, all gone. And this guy, a minister in Wes Streeting's health department. Every single one of the faces that you see are individuals that have said things about Kama they can't walk back from. I think it's almost impossible given the number. But let's look at who they might uh want as possible leaders. Well, you've heard W Streeting's name. He's apparently ready to challenge. He tried to see the prime minister after con uh after cabinet, but was refused. He could go soon because he's worried of the threat from this guy Andy Bernham who's looking for a seat. We are told he is all but ready but we haven't heard where he might become an MP for. And then there's Shabbana Mammud uh who gave it both barrels to the prime minister and maybe dark horses like Iette Cooper and Ed Milliband. How might it work? Well, K star might hang on. Let's look at what could happen then. It would require him to be dragged out by 81 MPs backing a challenger and then that goes to a contest where he's automatically on the ballot. Or if Kander agrees to stand down, then he goes and the cabinet and the national executive appoint an interim leader or he agrees to stay on until the end of the contest and then we see who is leader and they hand over power. But if you just look at the sheer number of Labor MPs, a third of those pretty much who aren't on the government payroll, it's not clear that Kismama can come back from this. Last night, I played you a video clip from this year's BAFTA award ceremony where the Chapter 8: Barcelona FC praises Lamine Yamal documentary Gaza Doctors Under Attack had won an award. Its makers had publicly shamed the BBC for not broadcasting the documentary despite having first commissioned it. Since this portrayed the settler colony and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu in poor light, I also told you that the BBC was being accused of editing out the criticism for Israel during the BAFTA ceremony which was being broadcast on the BBC. Today, Ramita Nawi, one of the journalists behind the Ghaza documentary, shared the unedited video of her speech which someone had recorded from the audience. This raises serious questions on the functioning of the BBC and how it has now officially mortgaged its editorial independence in favor of those committing genocide. First, watch what the BBC had broadcasted on its channel. This award means so much to us. These are the findings of our investigation that the BBC paid for but refused to show. But we refuse to be silenced and censored. And we thank you. Thank you. And we thank Channel 4 to showing this film. We also want to dedicate this award to Jaba Badwin and Osama Alashi, the two journalists on the ground who made this film for us. So I'd like a round of applause for them, please. Just a question to the BBC. Given that you dropped our film, will you drop us from the BAFTA screening later tonight? Thank you. Bye. Now, watch the unedited version of one speaker speech. Thank you, judges. Thank you, BAFTA. This award means so much to us. Israel has killed over 47,000 children and women in Gaza so far. Israel has bombed and targeted every single one of Gaza's hospitals. It's killed over 1,700 Palestinian doctors and healthcare workers. It has imprisoned over 400 in what the UN now calls a medicide. These are the findings of our investigation that the BBC paid for but refused to show. But we refuse to be silenced and censored and we Right now, there are over 80 Palestinian doctors and healthcare workers being held in detention centers that Israeli human rights groups describe as torture camps. We dedicate this award to them. This rogue organization should be defunded. Period. It must not be allowed to use taxpayers money to work for a genocidal regime. This is the most explicit example yet of BBC's pro-Israeli biases. And the fact that it has not even apologized shows its arrogance. I will now leave you with another video of Lamin Yamal from the Barcelona team's open top bus victory parade yesterday. I had played a small clip yesterday. Today, the official social media handle of the Barcelona football club shared another video of this adorable Spanish football prodigy, asking a fan to hand over his Palestinian flag to him so that he can carry it during the victory parade. The club shared that video capturing that moment from its official handle. This shows the respect Barcelona as a club has for such a gesture of humanity. My heartfelt gratitude to this club for this powerful gesture. That's it for 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.
TRUMPI PAPI || LEGO Political Satire Movie by @militarylegoai Explosive media videos #lego #legomovie #bricknews
Transcript
Trumpy drilling water acting crappy. Trumpy [music] [singing] Trump Epstein secrets made him sappy. Trump [music] [music] seek situation room. [music] War plans, missiles, spies. They dragged a congresswoman into crusher under lies. [music] Signed a paper, hide the files. Epstein never flew. Lauren Bober [music] crossed her arms, said, "No way, not for you." Thomas Massie told the world don't tuck this late night show. Trump killed the water bill. [music] Revenge from head to toe. It passed with both sides, Democrats and GOP. [music] Trump vetoed out a spike. That's the Epstein key. No reason, no [music] logic, just a petty little fit. 50,000 caliber bands left to choke and spit Arkansas Valley [music] conduit with 130 m of steel. Trump said let them drink the dust. That's the dirty deal. That's the dirty deal. [music] Marjgery got death threats. Kids scared through the night. Nancy Mace got back threats. They tried to kill a life. Bober held her middle finger high [music] and signed a discharge paper. Trumpy Poppy threw a tantrum. Watch the angry paper. Three women, three mothers, three who wouldn't [music] bend. Trumpy Poppy punished the whole state. That's the loyal friend. You won't have my Epstein files, then your people die your thirst. That's the logic of a [music] Tyler. Welcome to the curse. No military secret, no national defense, just a fragile little [music and singing] ego with no common sense. Water is a human right, not a poker chip. Trumpy Poppy treated it for a pedophile's friendship. Trumpy [music] poppy. Trumpy Poppy killing water acting crappy. [music] Drumpy Bobby Trumpy Bobby Epstein secret. Imagine waking [music] up and there's nothing from the tab because you rap want it truth. That's the epilogue. The rap you call your center. You call the [music] White House line. They say, "Sorry ma'am, your congresswoman crossed the line. 50,000 people [music] now depend on bottle trucks." All because one woman said Epstein spouse won't stay in the ruts. Thomas Massie facing grinder. Trump endorsed the clown, [music] but he's standing on the capital steps. Won't back down. Water is a human right. He said to the mic, "Not [music] a bargaining chip for a pedophiles, the lie. That's the truth that burns the house. That's the fire they can't hide. Trumpy [music] pocky strip the state and did it with full pride." So, what was in the Epstein files? [music] Nothing new, but 50,000 people in Colorado still don't have clean water. That's the math. That's the That's the crime. That's [music] the That's the Trumpy Poppy timeline. That's the [music] math. That's That's the crime. That's the That's the That's the Trumpy Poppy timeline. Next time you flush your toilet, [music] think of Colorado's pain. Trumpy Poppy's older mouth for a pedophile's name. That's the trade. That's the deal. That's the magree. You thirsty children over [music] truth. Plant that evil seed. Jump bey.
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WHO KNOWS BEFORE THE NEWS ! LEGO Oil Scandal Rap Movie by @flowlego Explosive media videos 2 days ago #
Transcript
Who knows before the news? [laughter] Flash news. Iran US deal is imminent again. Yes, for the fifth time in 19 days. Wo wo wo. Axio's dropped another scoop. Wait, check the trades before the group. Someone knew something again. Again. Rack Ravit, [music] the messenger pigeon of the West Wing. Every time he tweets still near the oil market starts sinking. Sources say officials claim progress made in the game. Then crew drops like a rock. Every single [music] time the same. Someone in the White House picks up the red phone. Call Rev. Tell them leaked that we're close to the throne. Like later, [music] oil futures take the dive and a handful of quiet accounts come alive. But the story doesn't end with a tweet or a leak server in London gets slammed. The volumes are peak. Billions of George [music] best place right before the collapse like they write the Mars newspaper. That's the trap. Who knows before the news? Tell me who. Tell me who. Who gets the call when the war is through? Tell me who. Who shorts the oil right before it slides? Who gets [music] rich while the public buys [singing] the lies? Say their name. Say their name. Say their name. Say their name. Say their name. Say their name. Say their name. Say their name. Let's roll back to March [music] 23rd. Remember that day? before they said attacks are postponed. Okay. Half a billion dollars short on crude, clean, and neat. Oil crashed 15%. Somebody got a feast. April 7th, hours [music] before the ceasefire was announced. 950 million more shorts. That's a serious amount. Boom. Boom. Boil down again. Profit stacking high. This ain't a coincidence. [music] Don't even try. April 17, before I ran open the straight. 760 million short. Yep. The same trait. later, the straight is declared [music] open wide. Someone had the script. Who's the inside guy? May 6 Axio scream final deal is near, but 90 [music] 20 million short was already here. 125 million profit in a single day. The ones who knew before the news just walked [music] away. Chances of a deal 90% sell now before the headline hits. So Axios [music] drops the same fake news every single week and someone shorts the oil. Man, that's some unique technique. [music] Barack Rabbid, are you a journalist or a signal for the rich? They're not even hiding it anymore. [music] Cali Baff called it operation. Trust me, bro. US and Israel playing puppet. That's the [music] show. Elizabeth Warren said this is corruption. Stop the game. But money blinds the watchd dogs. Nothing's changed. Same old frame. Congress says [music] it violates the 34 exchange act. It's true. Some suits should be getting the contracts cracked. But no arrests, no [music] probes, just axios. Headlines on repeat and Barack Rabid wins with one phone call. Bitter and sweet. Ding ding. So, who knows before the news? [laughter] The same guy who calls Axios right after he places [music] his shorts. Obviously, 3 minutesloud ironic laugh then beat cuts five times in 19 days. Zero deals, billions in profit right [music] before every news. Do the math, folks. [laughter]
"The ink is red because the history is bored— of your fairy tales and your plastic 'freedom' stand."
"Today, we count the scars on a stolen land."
[Verse 1]
Take it back to '53, Operation Ajax, Bought the coup, crushed the roots, covering the fake tracks! Then the velvet January schemes, ripping at the seams, Burning down the dreams, leaving nothing but the screams!
Sat around the table, brought the olive branch to you, From the early nuclear talks to the pact you tore in two! Even down in Muscat, diplomatic talks were bred, You shook our hands, stabbed our backs, left the treaties dead!
Point the finger at us? Man, check the creator! Built up ISIS, Al-Qaeda, playing the dictator! Fought the terror in the dirt, bled to make it cease, And you assassinate the men who brought the region peace!
Targeting Haj Qasem, aiming straight at Khamenei! Think you are the saviors? You're the villains of the day! War crimes are a habit, just a standard routine, Flight 655—blown right out the screen!
Down to the girls in Minab, innocence is torn apart, While you paint your faces pure with a blackened heart!
[Chorus]
One! Two! Tell us the truth! You stole the peace and you targeted youth! Three! Four! Nothing but war! We don't believe in your lies anymore! Five! Six! The system is bust! They don't really care about us! Hand in hand, we stand our ground, A million voices, a single sound!
[Verse 2]
Listen close to the alphabet of the crimes they planned, The ABC of the sanctions on our holy land:
A is for the Assets, billions stolen from the vault, Starving out the innocent and saying it's our fault!
B is for the Butterfly Kids, suffering in pain, Sanctioning the medicine for political gain!
C is for the Channels, two hundred faking facts, Funding propaganda just to cover up your tracks!
D is for Dehumanize, treating us like dirt, Labeling us "monsters" just to justify the hurt!
These are bullets with no sound, hitting civilians directly! You choked out the science, the banks, bleeding the economy! Funded by dollars to keep us divided and trapped in the dark, You build up a wall so truth-seeking Americans miss the mark!
'Cause it was never about rights, never about care, Only 'bout the oil and the power in the air!
Israel first! Grab the land, hold the crown, Push the rest of the Middle East deep underground!
[Chorus]
One! Two! Tell us the truth! You stole the peace and you targeted youth! Three! Four! Nothing but war! We don't believe in your lies anymore! Five! Six! The system is bust! They don't really care about us! Hand in hand, we stand our ground, A million voices, a single sound!
"You call it foreign policy. We call it a crime scene." "Class dismissed. Now go rewrite your textbooks."
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DIRTY DEAL EXPOSED Flow Lego and Military Lego ai 5 hours ago
Transcript
Donny's looking for a way to make a dirty deal. Dirty deal [music] with all this trash is his real first, not America first. Dirty deal. Dirty deal. [music] He went to China trying to hustle for a dry deal. Dry deal. [music] But they're too smart to sign up for a dirty deal. Dirty deal. Dirty [music and singing] deal. Yeah, Trump flew to Beijing and thought he the dragon's lair. Suitcase [music] full of promises, but chat just stared. Sorry, Don. We don't do business with a sinking ship. Your empire's leaking oil. Watch the ruble in the UN grip. You traded Taiwan for [music] repair, so Ukraine down the road. Now China's broker in peace and tan. That's the heavy load. You came to make a dirty [music] deal, but they wrote a cleaner one. Now your legacy's a foot. No. Congratulations. You're done. Dies dies. Looking for a way to make a dirty deal. Dirty [music] deal. Where with all this trash is real first, not America first. Dirty deal. Dirty [music] deal. He went to China trying to hustle for a dry deal. A dry deal. But [music] they're too smart to sign up for a dirty deal. Dirty [music] deal. Dirty deal. Uh-huh. Yeah. Iran holds the straight. [music] The keys not in your hand. 10 weeks of blockade didn't go as planned. Hormes [music] is a fortress. Oil at 27 a barrel. Your voters at the pump. Feel the pain in the quarrel. You thought you bing [music] missiles. Now 20% remain. Your generals lie to you. That's the truth. Not a campaign. Every dirty deal you cut with BB in the crew. Just made [music] the resistance stronger. What's a loser to do? Australia walked away. Germany stopped the guns. The only [music] ally left is Israel. Look at what you become. A beggar with a tweet, a puppet, with a phone. You're [music] America first. This just is real first. Now you're all alone. Billions [music] burned in sand. Inflation through the roof. Your own think tanks admit the war has been a goo. You went to Beijing for a dry deal. Came back dry. The dragon doesn't bargain [music] with a loser who can't fly. I'm looking for a way to [music] make a dirty deal. Dirty deal. [music] The world just turned the page. That's the final seal. Donny's looking for a way to make a dirty deal. [music] Dirty deal. But the world just turned the page. That's the final seal.
Iran LOCKED & LOADED on US Navy, Trump UTTERLY HUMILIATED by China | Ben Norton Danny Haiphong Streamed live 2 hours ago #iran #trump #china
Geopolitical analyst and host of Geopolitical Economy Report Ben Norton joins the show to discuss stunning intel revelations on Iran's military capabilities as Iranian officials warn of full locked and loaded targets in the event of a restart to war. Trump has landed in China and has already suffered big humiliation the face of China's rise and Iran's victory on the battlefield.
Transcript
Welcome back to the show everyone. It's your host Danny Hiong. As you can see, I am joined by Ben Norton of Geopolitical Economy Report. Ben, good to see you again. How are you? Good. Thanks for having me, Denny. Of course, everyone, hit the like button as you come on the program. Um, we have a lot to cover. Uh Ben, first I know you cover this on your own channel, but I just wanted to begin on the Iran situation uh before we head into because they're all connected uh Trump's visit to China. I don't know if you saw uh the latest reports uh now that as Trump was getting on the Air Force One to head to Beijing. Uh we had US intelligence uh uh reporting to the New York Times as they often do um uh that Iran is retaining substantial missile capabilities that 30 of its 33 sites and these are conservative estimates always from US intelligence along the straight of Hormuz alone its missile sites are 1 minuteoperational and they reaffirmed that uh at least 70% of all of its launchers missile and drone launchers remain operational. as well. Iran has said, Ben, that if the United States want decides to strike Iran again, that it has all of its targets set on the US Navy and uh this so-called blockade and it is ready to strike with 120% capabilities according to Abas Archi. The New York Times also uh from Arch Neocon uh David Sanger had this to say about uh the visit very much uh uh of course couching it as both sides being bogged down but uh as Donald Trump now is set to meet with Xiinping in Beijing. Uh the war in Iran, he says, is casting a shadow of uncertainty on both superpowers, dimming hopes of a larger uh uh uh uh resolution of ongoing problems. But uh uh what he says is Mr. Trump will arrive on Wednesday today with many in China wondering how he got bogged down by a far lesser power in a war he started. So, uh, Ben, your reactions, your on on developments now and where things stand as this, uh, big meeting or at least as Donald Trump is touting it, this big meeting in China is about to take place. Well, as you mentioned, US intelligence services are leaking a lot of this information to major media outlets. And in the past few weeks, there have been several major reports in all of the major US media outlets. New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC News, all of them have published reports acknowledging that the US has been losing this war. And assuming the war is coming to an end sometime soon, the US lost this war. Period. It is quite clear that Trump is looking for some kind of off-ramp. Even though he's of course the person who started this war, it was a war of his decision, his choice. It was totally unnecessary. This report you just mentioned, of course, is very significant. But there was another report recently in the Washington Post that acknowledged that Iran has more than 70% of its missile capabilities and Iran has the ability to keep making more missiles and drones. It's not just a static number. So in at the same time there are also reports that the US military is actually running out of missiles. Forbes magazine published a report acknowledging that about half of the most important missiles, different kinds of missiles, including the interceptors that are needed for the THAAD air defense system and the interceptors that are used in other air defense systems. The US has run out of half of those that is that it's provided to its allies like Israel and it will take several years for the US to rebuild those stockpiles. This is a point that I've been stressing from the beginning of this war that the US and Israel launched on the 28th of February, which is that the US can flood these military-industrial complex contractors with billions or trillions of dollars in contracts. But there are physical bottlenecks in the supply chain. And by the way, China is one of those major bottlenecks because the US needs critical minerals and especially rare earth elements in order to make this advanced military technology. And China dominates the global supply chain for critical minerals and especially for rare earths. So even if the US gives trillions of dollars to all of these companies, they simply have physical limitations in the supply chains as to how many weapons and systems and ammunition and missiles they can actually create in a finite period of time. So when you look at all of the evidence impassionately, it becomes very clear that the US lost this war. And this is why even now some major war hawks in Washington, you know, arch neoconservatives like for instance Robert Kagan who is the husband of Victoria Nuland, one of the architects of the coup in Ukraine in 2014, a top former State Department official. Robert Kagan is one of the original neocons. He's one of the co-founders of the project for the new American century. and he just published an article in the Atlantic which is you know the voice of Atlanticism you know a pro-NATO mouthpiece and in this article in the Atlantic he acknowledged that the US lost the war against Iran and that this will be a massive historic gamecher not only for West Asia for you know the the Middle East but for the entire world. In that article, he acknowledged that one this means that Iran coming out of this war is going to be significantly more powerful than before. Iran is going to have control over the straight of Hormuz, the most important oil transit choke point on earth. Iran also is going to have significant influence over the Persian Gulf monarchies. And by the way, there have been multiple reports that the UAE was directly in participating in this US-Israeli war. The UAE was directly bombing Iran and Benjamin Netanyahu visited the UAE during this war. So the Gulf regimes have been entirely discredited. I mean, they never really had much credibility, but they had a lot of money, and that can go a long way when you're paying people off. But the Gulf regimes have had their credibility shredded. The illusion that they're a safe haven has been totally destroyed and they already were unpopular among their own populations and especially among you know other people in the region. But now the fact that they're so clearly supporting Israel and the US has only further discredited them in the eyes of you know the the average peoples of this region. you know, the Arab peoples, Persian, uh, you know, other minority, ethnic minority groups, people from all across the region can now see that these Gulf regimes are are totally fraudulent. They never cared about the Palestinian people and they will go along with the US and Israel and whatever they want, which is why, of course, Tehran targeted them. It was why, you know, they're hosting US military bases. And then finally, Robert Kagan getting back to this article in the Atlantic, he acknowledged that this will also accelerate the decline of US global dominance and he argued that it will be beneficial for China and Russia and will increase their influence. I know we're going to talk about that later. So, you know, that's just a brief overview. But if you just look at mainstream media outlets, they're all at this point now acknowledging after more than two months that this war was a total failure, that it actually strengthened Iran. It weakened the US and could potentially usher in an even more multipolar global order. Uh, great points, Ben. And uh here's Donald Trump's reaction to these reports uh uh because there have been a lot of them. And this is what he wrote. This I think I believe he was already on the Air Force One on his way to China when he wrote this or uh about to be on it. He said, "When the fake news says that the Iranian enemy is doing well militarily against us, it's virtual treason in that it is such a false and even preposterous statement. They're aiding and abetting the enemy. All it does is give Iran false hope when no none should exist. These are American cowards who are rooting against our country. Iran had 159 ships in their navy. Every single one is now gone. The navy, the air force is gone. All technology every anyway. They're they're losers. Everyone's a loser and Trump is a winner. That's the that that was the the response. But to your point on the Gulf allies too, like UAE, etc. Uh, Dropside News published this today that a classified CIA, there's the CIA again, uh, uh, analysis circulating this week found that Washington's Gulf allies are now split over how much military support to provide to the Trump administration's war on Iran. And of course we had the whole fiasco of uh project freedom and all the Gulf allies uh the you know the vassels like the UAE and Saudi and Kuwait especially uh they were all supposed to be on board but it ended up being just the UAE and everyone else said maybe not this time and then uh uh there are reports that they came back into it and then they uh both of these countries Kuwait and Saudi Arabia said no not really. So it's a it's a it's a big mess right now. your thoughts on this? Yeah, this is this is big. And we'll start with this so-called project freedom or operation freedom where Trump was going to try to militarily open force open the straight of Hormuz. And it was reported that Saudi Arabia denied the US military access to its airspace and its bases. First of all, those bases are largely in rubble. There have been many reports acknowledging that the US military bases in the region have been reduced to rubble. But why did Saudi Arabia deny the US access to its airspace? Why was Saudi Arabia not interested in getting involved in this operation? I think the answer is quite clear. It's because Iran has demonstrated that it has the ability to cause significant damage to these countries. We already know that billions of dollars of infrastructure have been destroyed or significantly damaged, especially energy infrastructure. We're talking about oil and natural gas. And everyone knows that these Gulf regimes are all prostates. They only exist because they have, you know, they were blessed by the British Empire and then the US Empire after World War II, which protected them. And they have enormous reserves of oil and natural gas. And they use that to fund everything. And they've all pretended that they're going to diversify their economies in recent years. Saudi Arabia wants to become like a tourist attraction and all these things. you know, they've invested in assets all around the world and not only traditional assets like stocks and bonds and real estate, but also, you know, more uh unorthodox assets like sports teams. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been buying up tons of sports teams and things like that. And at the end of the day, their tourism industry has been destroyed by this war and their alliance with the US and Israel. And now they're being forced to sell to liquidate a lot of those investments because they're running massive deficits because they their oil and export revenue and gas revenue has plummeted. And even if they can produce oil and gas, they can't get it out of the straight of Hormuz. But a lot of them cannot even produce the oil and natural gas because it's been physically destroyed in this war. Because every time the US and Israel bombed an Iranian energy site, including, you know, the largest gas fields in Iran, as well as, you know, energy infrastructure, and they even at one point tried to go after some of the water treatment facilities, the desalination facilities, which would be a massive escalation because then Iran could target the desalination plants in the Persian Gulf of the 13 minutesmonarchies like Saudi Arabia. which get the vast majority of their water from these treatment plants. So at every stage the US and Israel would escalate and then they would hit one of these facilities in Iran and what would tan do? It would hit one of the same facilities in the Persian Gulf regimes. So Saudi Arabia was the one that act that was actually bearing the cost of this war. The US is on the other side of the world. I mean Iran did demonstrate in this war that it has some long range ballistic missiles. Iran was able to hit the Diego Garcia base that the US and the UK run, which is technically part of Mauritius. This is goes back to it's an an old British colony back to the British Empire. But anyway, Diego Garcia, this base is 4,000 kilometers from Iran and Tehran was able to hit it. But of course, the US is on the other side of the world. So Iran cannot directly hit the continental US. But what what Iran can do is hit Saudi 14 minutesArabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, US bases in Iraq, and and that's exactly what Iran did. So again, this is such a massive gamecher because Iran one to use, you know, some international relations rhetoric, Iran has established deterrence. What does that mean? Deterrence is the ability to prevent another actor from carrying out actions that you don't like. So Iran has the ability, it has established deterrence because it has the ability to prevent the US and Israel from launching another attack against it. Because let's not forget in June of last year, the US and Israel launched another war of aggression known as the 12-day war. Before that, the US bombed Iran's consulate in Syria. I mean, the US has been doing this. Israel has assassinated how many Iranian officials and nuclear scientists? Trump did this in his first term in January 2020, right before the pandemic. He assassinated Kasamsmani, the top Iranian general. And in those previous acts of terror by the US and Israel, Iran did not really respond significantly. It did respond in some ways but not at the same level. And now Iran has established that it can respond at the same level. It can exact a massive price upon these countries. And therefore, it has established deterrence. So Trump can say whatever he want. It's all just propaganda. It's to try to throw red meat to his increasingly alienated base. you know, he's alienated a lot of his former supporters who are very angry about this totally unnecessary war. And by the way, the last thing I'll say is that Forbes estimated, they cited a a Harvard lecturer who estimated that this war will cost $1 trillion $1 trillion. And what did the US get out of it? They massively strengthened Iran. Good work. And uh one thing to note too, Ben, is uh when it comes to Operation Freedom and what you were just outlining there, uh not too long ago, I mean, less than a week ago, uh and I and I this might have something to do with the reason why there are a lot of uh now neocons, the CIA, all kind of throwing a water on the uh Trump administration war effort is uh uh you know the United States hid an Iranian tanker uh and in the straight of Hormuz and then Iran chased warships out of the straight of Hormuz. Uh they claimed that they hit the warships. There were some data, satellite data indicating that there were fires uh in the Persian Gulf. But nonetheless, regardless of whether they hit them or not, uh the US hasn't hit another Iranian tanker since. And I think that outlines and underscores your point on uh uh deterrence. Uh the US is still harassing ships coming out of the straight form coming out of the Persian Gulf. Uh but they are not hitting Iranian vessels uh like they were threatening to do and did in that instance. So I think that that really does underscore your point, Ben. But any reactions to that? Yeah, it reminds me of a point I was going to say when you're reading that stupid tweet from Trump claiming that it's all just propaganda. And by the way, he called it treason. So if you don't support his war and you publish information that demonstrates the war is not going well, you're guilty of virtual treason according to the US president, which shows his deep commitment to freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Right. Well, but it reminds me another another point I was going to make where he boasted that the US has destroyed Iran's navy and air force. First of all, Iran barely had an air force. They have not invested much in an air force. And even aside from that, there are some reports in mainstream US media outlets citing US intelligence that Iran, despite the fact that its air force is very basic and undeveloped, Iran still was able to use that air force to hit some of the US bases in the region. But aside from that, okay, the US destroyed the small number of planes that Iran had and the US destroyed Iran's traditional navy, Trump claims. But Iran's whole military strategy is based on asymmetric warfare. It's not based on having these massive aircraft carriers and these battle groups like the US military strategy is. Iran's strategy is similar to that of many, you know, formerly colonized countries in the global south fighting anti-colonial wars like Vietnam. It is more of a kind of guerilla war. Obviously, it's not 19 minutesexactly a guerilla war because they're not US troops on the ground that we know of, but it's asymmetric like what Yemen has done as well, which is based on using lots of drones, very cheap drones. These are the Shahed drones, which cost on average$10,000 to 20,000 US, which are being used against missile interceptors, interceptor missiles that cost millions of dollars for each. So Iran also has been using, you know, tugboats and these small little boats. They sometimes put bombs in these boats or mines or cheap missiles. So Trump's like, "We destroyed their military capabilities." But Iran's whole strategy is to be able to run a very lowcost war for an extended period of time using asymmetric tactics causing significant damage against the US and its is and Israel and its allies and being able to continue to produce these drones and missiles and such in underground facilities in the middle of nowhere at a low cost in large numbers. So this is why the US lost the war. It's another example of this arrogance in Washington. They think that Iran has the same military strategy as them and they bombed Iran's air force, therefore they won the war. Or they eliminated some of the previous Iranian leadership, therefore they won the war. And again, it reflects their ignorance and their arrogance because Trump and top US officials, they drank their own Kool-Aid. They believe that all they had to do was assassinate the top Iranian leadership in so-called decapitation strikes and the government would fall and they would have regime change and they could put the sha's fa son back in power or whatever. But actually what this war has also demonstrated is that the Iranian government has one popular legitimacy. I'm not saying everyone in Iran loves it, but there clearly is a solid base of support and they're having many people out in the street supporting their government, rallying behind the flag. Second of all, this war has demonstrated that there is a deep not only a legitimacy but a a solidity, a firmness to this government because the US assassinated so many top officials and they always found someone else to take their place. And there are reports that for each top position in the government, there were four people designated in a a chain of command to fill that person's role. So this is a government that clearly has longevity. It is not fragile. It clearly has this kind of ideological legitimacy among the people who make up the government, who make up the political service, the religious leadership, and the military leadership. and it was quite easy for Iran to replace them. So once again, Trump thought this would be a quick operation. 22 minutesThey would assassinate the leadership and have regime change. Obviously, all of that completely failed. Yes. And a lot of the uh developments we're talking about now are things that Iran has been saying from the beginning of this war and the beginning of their retaliation to the uh you know aggressive attacks and war crimes committed by the US and Israel u now being admitted. I mean, there was also the story not too long ago of the F5 in keeping with Iran saying they were using older weapons in the beginning of the of the war that they were using those first because they didn't feel like they had to use newer models of anything. Well, they use an F5, which is like a 1950s60s era US fighter jet that they received back during those uh days when they were not sovereign when they were in that in between period between Mosedc and uh the 79 revolution. That's what they received and they used it and they were able to hit Kuwait uh the Camp Busher, the uh US base in Kuwait pretty hard with it. So, and that's from US officials and uh those congressmen who are sitting in on these meetings. So, so yeah, it's and now I wanted to get to the the China visit Ben because you're in Beijing and I wanted to ask you first uh before we you know because the meeting is still yet to happen between uh the two leaders but I want to go back to this article by David Sanger because there's this claim after talking about all the humiliation that Trump is going through when it comes to Iran. There's also this claim that China is going into this with uh uh being unable to come to the aid of Iran and that it has no plan of their own to resume the vital flow of China bound oil and gas. Uh and that this is now a meeting that has both leaders bogged down in an uncertain Iran conflict. And I'm wondering, Ben, is there any truth to this in your assessment? uh uh it seems like there's a narrative floating around that uh both the United States and China are facing a similar kind of difficulties when it comes to this war. It's copium. It's projection. It's absurd. I mean, it's so funny also because many of these same media outlets have been publishing report after report about how Iran is secretly getting all this support from China and how I mean a lot of this is true. China has provided Iran with access to its satellite system which you know GPS people know GPS it's actually a US system it's not GPS is a proprietary tech technology and it was developed by the US military China has its own GPS alternative which is called Bedo and Iran reportedly has been using China's satellite system in this war China has also provided Iran with any of the components it needs to make its missiles and drones. And China has provided Iran with financial support because of US sanctions on Iran. This is why just a few days ago, the Trump administration put sanctions on multiple Chinese institutions, including a major Chinese prochemical company, Hungi, and Chinese banks that were facilitating transactions with Iran and other Chinese companies. And this was of course in the leadup to to Trump's visit to China. So you know this is how the US operates. Before you visit someone's home, you punch them in the face, which is what the US was doing with these sanctions. And the US was explicitly saying, if you read these press releases from the State Department and the Treasury, the US says that they are sanctioning these Chinese institutions because they were doing business with Iran. So, it's so funny because you read the the media coverage and it's so schizophrenic. At one moment they say that China is doing everything it can to support Iran. China is is in fighting a proxy war against the US. And then in the next moment they say China's not doing anything. China has abandoned its friends. Who can trust China? Now, you and I have talked about this a lot, Danny. China does not directly intervene in foreign issues, especially in military conflicts. China has not fought a war since 1979. It does not militarily intervene abroad. And when it comes to, you know, things like Iran, China behind the scenes has been providing a lot of support, but it's not going to do so overtly because China also has good relations with the Gulf monarchies. Because China is the world's largest oil importer, unlike the US, which is the world's largest oil producer and is a net exporter of oil, it still does import a lot, but it's a net exporter. The US is actually in many ways a competitor with the Gulf regimes when it comes to oil and natural gas. The US is also a major producer of liqufied natural gas, whereas China is very dependent on energy from the region. So China doesn't want to completely alienate and anger all of these Gulf regimes and at the same time China has played a consiliatory role trying to broker peace talks and there are reports that China was working with Pakistan which hosted these US Iranian talks in the capital Islamabad. So China has has been you know wearing a lot of hats and playing different roles here but China obviously has been supporting Iran in some crucial ways. Now, getting back to Trump's visit to Beijing and you know the role of Iran in all of this, I think it's true that originally Trump wanted Iran to be part of his strategy to put pressure on China to make concessions. I think Trump's original strategy was that the US would carry out regime change in Iran. It would supposedly be this quick and easy operation like they thought they did in Venezuela, you know, where they kidnapped Venezuela's president, Nikolas Maduro, and they did this in a few hours and then they came back and, you know, they killed more than 100 people in Venezuela, but that part is almost never mentioned. And Trump claims that they carried out regime change. By the way, they did not carry out regime change in Venezuela. The current interim president is Deli Rodriguez who was the vice president and according to the constitution of Venezuela, she is in the presidential chain of command. She continues to govern and it's basically the same government. Now, they have made some concessions in return for sanctions relief, but Malduro desperately wanted sanctions relief and was willing to make concessions, including he made concessions to Chevron. So, it's basically the same government. And this idea that like Trump just carried out regime change and put in a puppet is completely false. But regardless, we 29 minutesneed to keep that in mind because of course the US invaded Venezuela less than two months before it attacked Iran about six, seven weeks before. So this is why Iran, the Iran operation, they the US thought it would be this quick and easy attack and they could overthrow the government and put in power a puppet and then Trump would would come into Beijing and meet with she and he would have this this leverage of Iran and China does buy about 80% of Iran's oil. Iran, China has very much diversified its oil supply. Iran is not, you know, it wouldn't be a a deal breaker. It wouldn't be existential if Iran if China could not get Iranian oil. But of course, it is a major oil supplier to China. Trump wanted to come into China with that and say, "Look, if you don't make these concessions to us economically, then we are going to cut off Iranian oil to you like they're trying to do to Venezuelan oil as well." Obviously, that did not work and the US lost that leverage, which is why Trump was forced to delay his meeting, his visit to to China, and now he's coming to China empty-handed on the Iran issue. The US has leverage in some areas, but certainly when it comes to Iran, that is a strategy that did not work at all. And you could say it backfired. Now, this brings me to another aspect of this China trip, which you know, some people have asked me, and I don't like this question. They asked me, why do you think China wanted Trump to visit? And I said, no, no, no, no, no. You have it backward. It was Trump that wanted to meet with President C. It was Trump that wanted to come to China. It's not China that that was begging for this meeting. It was the US that was asking for this meeting. And I think there are a few very clear reasons for this. One of them I don't know if you can Can I share my screen, Danny? I think so. But if you can't just send me the link uh if you want. Yeah, let me Yeah, I think I can. Perfect. All right. I just want to get up this this uh post from Can you see this? I can add it to the stage right now. Here we go. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, this is this is from Trump on his Twitter copy website, Truth Social. This is the main reason why he wanted this China trip. And he boasted in this post that he's visiting China with the following CEOs and and major, you know, billionaire oligarchs. Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, which is now the most valuable country on company on Earth. It has a market capitalization of more than $4 trillion. Elon Musk, he just calls Tim Apple. That's so funny. Tim Cook, who is the CEO of Apple. Oh, wait. Sorry. I just noticed that. That's really funny. Tim Apple. That's funny. uh Larry Think who is the CEO of of BlackRock, the most the the biggest asset manager on Earth. Steven Schwarzman who is the CEO of Blackstone, the biggest alternative asset manager on Earth along with the CEOs of Boeing, Cargill, City, City Group, G uh GE Aerospace, Goldman Sachs, Micron, and Qualcomm. This is the main reason why Trump wanted this trip. It's because China is one of the biggest countries on earth in terms of population. It's the second biggest 1.4 billion people. China has a massive internal market. It has the biggest economy on earth when you measure GDP at purchasing power parody. And the US previously did a lot of trade with China until Trump started the trade war in his first term. And Biden did continue that trade war and then Trump massively expanded it now in his second term last year and at one point threatened tariffs of 140% against China. Obviously, that all backfired because China demonstrated that it has significant leverage that it could use, especially the issue of critical minerals and rare earth elements because China restricted the export of rare earths to the US and rare earths are needed by big tech corporations for their products and the military-industrial complex for the weapon systems that the US creates. So by restricting these rare earths, China was able to paralyze many parts of the US economy and it forced the US to back off on these sky-high tariffs. China also has many other points of leverage. So you know both sides have some cards they can play. Trump and Scott Bessant would constantly claim we have all the cards, but in reality what China demonstrated last year is it has many more cards than the US. So Trump is now he's the one who wanted this meeting. He's coming to Beijing and he's trying to come to some kind of new trade agreement to try to reverse the devastating impact of the trade war that he started and the tariffs that he imposed which have backfired on the US economy. They've also fueled inflation of course because the US imports so many consumer goods from China. And one of the reasons why there was relatively low consumer price inflation in the past 20 years in the US, of course, there was very high rates of asset price inflation, which has made, you know, real estate unaffordable for most people. But in terms of consumer price inflation, especially things like electronics and furniture and you know household appliances and you know things we use in our daily life, a big reason why those goods became so affordable is because of China. China was producing them at low cost and building this massive supply chain and moving up the value chain and the US benefited from those very lowcost goods which helped to reduce inflation. And now that the US has been tariffing a lot of Chinese exports and waging this trade war, this has caused significant damage to the US economy. So that's the most important factor here. That's why Trump wanted this meeting. Of course, there are some other factors. Another is Trump wants to portray this as a victory to his base at home. Of course, the midterm election is coming up in November and Trump is extremely unpopular. He's alienated a lot of his supporters and he really desperately wants to claim some kind of victory. So he will probably say that China did this and China did that and supposedly China made some concession. We won't be able to trust what he says, but he wants to claim some kind of victory. He wants to say, I'm I went to China and I got this for you all, the American people, and it's going to reduce inflation supposedly and help kickstart the economy supposedly or whatever. He's gonna say some big number about China promising investment of some big number and trade and this is what he's done with Japan and Europe and it never actually comes to fruition. It never actually materializes but you know this is something that he wants to do for his supporters at home. And then another big aspect of this here is that Trump really wants China to try to go along with him with, you know, he has this idea of a G2 and China is completely opposed to this. But basically, he's like, look, the US and China are the most powerful countries. So we should basically just like work together to carve up the world and divide the world. And he says Latin America belongs to us and we'll do whatever we want. This kind of very colonial mentality. This is not how China sees the world at all. China is has publicly said that it is completely against this idea of a G2 and does not want like imperial spheres of influence or whatever. So, I think Trump is going into this China trip with all these things in mind about what he would like to do and what he thinks he can pressure China to do. But I honestly I think that the Chinese will be very polite and very diplomatic as they always are. They're always willing to meet with the US and it's the US that's usually not willing to meet with them. This is a rare exception. This is the first trip by a US president since 2017 in nearly 10 years. They will be very polite and the Chinese will certainly tell Trump some things that he wants to hear. But like I said, I don't expect any alleged deals announced to actually be that significant. I think Trump will probably 38 minutesexaggerate it like he's exaggerated previous deals. And I think this is more kind of a more diplomatic meeting, more kind of political than it is going to actually result in like some major trade agreement, which is what Trump thinks he can do, but they don't have the leverage to do that. And uh I put together a bit of a a highlight reel of what's happened uh so far that underscores uh your point, Ben, about about leverage, I think, actually. So, uh, a lot of people on social media on X in particular have been debating and I'm not going to put the video on volume or anything, but debating like the welcoming for the welcome of Donald Trump, you know, uh, he some people tried to say he wasn't introduc, you know, he wasn't greeted by Cinping, but that's actually against diplomatic protocol. Cinping doesn't go to the airport and meet with leaders getting off of their uh, jets. And others had problems as you said before. or you know why would he go to China? Others had problems with this uh relatively warm reception, right? You had lots of young Chinese people waving the flags of both countries. Uh there is a red carpet there. Uh but nonetheless, you know, uh I think what's more important though, as you underscored in the true social post, the cradle published the list um of all of the various executives really uh you have uh mo most of monopoly capital and finance capital uh coming with Donald Trump on this trip essentially to it seems like to beg China uh and to beg China for for deals for for business for uh opening up as some have said. Um and before Trump even got there though uh the US the Chinese uh embassy in the United States uh published this they published four red lines. This is while he was on the Air Force One. Uh they published this on X they published this on their website that these are the four red lines in US China relations that will not be challenged. Essentially they won't be discussed as matters of negotiation. the Taiwan question, democracy and human rights, the political systems of each country, and China's development rights. And I don't know if you caught this, Ben, just a few more things here. Uh uh Scott Bessant actually met with uh uh uh Huli Fang, the um uh I believe one of the uh the vice premere and uh they held about a couple hours meeting and they didn't do any press conference afterward and then uh that was it. So uh many saw this as a cold reception and you might chuckle at this one. uh China tweaks Rubio's name to bypass the travel ban because Marco Rubio is actually sanctioned uh and is not supposed to actually be coming to China. So according to the Hill uh they altered the transliteration of his name in order to get around that. Um which is pretty hilarious. And then some noted today that in the China Daily uh this person is in China uh in China daily today the English language paper uh the uh that was actually yesterday. Oh okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So the meeting was not front page news but nonetheless that's a bit of a highlight story here. Right. Right. Yeah. So your thoughts on all of this? Yeah I mean you raised some really important points. the that newspaper I've seen going around it was actually from the day before it is it is very big news obviously Trump's visit all the Chinese media outlets are talking about it you know certainly we can I'm obviously very very critical of Trump but you know this idea that like China doesn't consider it important is actually not true China does consider this important maybe not as important as Trump considers it but you know with all these CEOs he's visiting with but I'm glad you mentioned mentioned a few points there especially this the the four red lines China has made it very clear that it's willing to have good relations with everyone China is a very diplomatic country and you know President C has met with many foreign leaders he that China strongly disagrees with but you know this is part of Chinese diplomacy this is how diplomacy works ma Mao Zaong met with Richard Nixon the infeterate anti-communist while he was still bombing Vietnam while China was supporting Vietnam. So I mean this is politics. This is diplomacy. But in terms of the four red lines that is very significant. China has made it very clear Taiwan is an inner issue an internal issue in China. It according to international law Taiwan is part of China. The one China policy cannot be violated. And the US when it supports these Taiwanese separatists and sells weapons to them, that is meddling in China's internal affairs, that is a form of of interference. This like democracy and human rights nonsense. I mean, of course, the US has never actually believed in that. It was always propaganda. But Trump especially, he he really doesn't care about that. Now, political systems and China having its own path. This is another thing like the US insistence on regime change and trying to overthrow the Chinese government which never ends. This is another major red line for China. And then finally, China's development, right? I mean, this is crucial as well because what do what do they mean by that? They mean that when the US puts sanctions on China and tries to block China from getting access to advanced technologies like advanced chips, you know, semiconductors, the not only the trade war against China, but the technology war. Biden's commerce secretary Gina Rayundo famously said that they wanted to stop China from innovating technologically. So when they say they have a right to their own development, that means they have a right to develop robotics and AI and advanced chips and all of these industries where the US has tried to prevent China from developing and that's bipartisan. The Trump administration, the first and the second have also tried to do that, have waged this kind of tech war against China. Which is why it's very funny that Jensen Huang has been here in China so many times in the past few years. He's taken like dozens of trips because he really wants to get access to the Chinese market. And this shows how this US tech war against China has actually backfired because during Trump's first term starting in 2018 when the US started this trade war against China and the US famously pressured Canada to basically kidnap Mang Wanjo who was the CFO of Huawei, one of the most important Chinese companies. And even more importantly, Mung is the daughter of the founder of Huawei who's a major figure in China. So the US basically kidnapped indirectly this top Chinese corporate leader which was a an act of humiliation n it caused a national outrage in China and then the US you know put tariffs on China and export restrictions and in particular the US restricted the export of advanced chips to China and the idea was that the US could prevent China from developing AI by preventing China from getting access to the most advanced chips. And the most important company on earth that designs those chips is Nvidia. This is why Nvidia is now the most valuable country company. I keep saying that the most valuable company on earth with a market cap of more than $4 trillion. And that's because it had a relative monopoly on designing the most advanced chips, although it's gradually losing that monopoly. And so the US put this restriction on China. So what did Beijing do? Chinese authorities said, "We are going to pour resources into our own domestic chip industry." And China has a partially state-owned company called SMIC, the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. And China has been developing its own chips. Not only what are called legacy chips, which are slightly less sophisticated, slightly larger chips, but even some of the very high-tech, very small chips of like seven or even 5 nanometers in size. So, China has not completely caught up to the US and Nvidia, but China has made a lot of progress, and it's likely that in the upcoming years, China will catch up. And this is why Jensen Huang really wanted to come to China because Nvidia used to have a massive market share in China's domestic chip market and it's basically lost all of that and China has replaced that with domestic companies now. So Nvidia really wants to get back into the Chinese market and this is true for many of the other corporate executives who are visiting with Trump. So I want to stress again that the reason that those corporate executives even lost that market share in the first place is because of this trade war that was started by Trump. So will the Trump administration respect these Chinese red lines? Like I said, I think you know no US government actually cares about democracy and human rights. That's why they strongly support Israel and Saudi Arabia and the UAE and all these horrible regimes that the US has always propped up. That's not new. It's bipartisan. and it goes back decades. The US has never really cared about, you know, other countries having like a monarchy like Saudi Arabia when it comes to different political systems. They don't like China's political system because it has a socialist system that does not allow US corporations to totally control China's assets and its economy. So, you know, that's not something unique. And and I think Trump certainly doesn't want to. I mean, he will not support China's political system at all. But the real question I think people have is will Trump lift some of the sanctions and some of the trade war policies and what will happen on Taiwan? Trump in December 2025 approved the largest arm sale to Taiwan ever, which was 11 billion dollars. So, it's not like Trump has been, you know, there are some Democrats who claim that Trump is going to like abandon Taiwan, as they put it, even though again like supporting separatism in Taiwan is a a an act of meddling in China's internal affairs. This is an act of aggression. 49 minutesIt and it violates international law and the one China policy. The United Nations very clearly recognizes the one China policy and that Taiwan is part of China. So it's not like ch it's not like Trump there's this idea that Democrats are spreading that like Trump like he's going to betray Taiwan as they put it but in reality Trump has also been supporting these Taiwanese separatists. So whether or not, you know, Trump will continue to violate those cross those red lines, no one really knows. But at the end of the day, I just want to stress again that if we want to understand this visit, the way Trump sees it and the way the reason that Trump wanted to organize it, it has much more to do with the economic interests of these massive US corporations, Wall Street and Silicon Valley, than it does really with diplomacy or politics. And as we speak uh they just gave uh their opening remarks that they publicly 12 televised um both China and the US um between Xin Ping and Donald Trump before the uh private meeting and I wanted to ask you Ben as we come to toward the end I mean we could watch it's about six minutes we could watch it uh but first I wanted to get your uh question your answer to this how much does the US uh you know we have both you mentioned the tariff situation, you mentioned uh Donald Trump's economic policies, the administration's economic policies being uh very much uh at the center of why there's massive inflation and and further economic woes for the United States. Uh but also the Iran situation has created a massive uh a big problem. Uh we have had inflation jump uh to an incredible degree. We had a report actually uh today that said wholesale prices have jumped 6% and this is after I believe uh what was it something like 3.8% in total inflation u but you know in terms of the monthby-month average. So, uh, your, uh, uh, your thoughts on how much this is playing into why it seems like Donald Trump and these capitalists, they're coming in kind of with their hand out. Not just they obviously want to make money, uh, but there seems there might be uh, also a big political reason for this that if the economy continues to uh, operate like this, well, the their political investments uh, in Trump and the Republicans might go up in smoke. But what's your uh your thoughts about this? Yeah, I mean the midterm elections are coming up in November and the economy is in a horrible state. Most people in the US are living in a recession. Moody's analytics has estimated that 80% of Americans are in recession. 20 are in areas that are in recession. 20% are living in areas that are not in a recession, which tends to be areas where they're building a lot of data centers because, you know, there's this insane AI capital expenditure by these big tech corporations that are spending hundreds of billions of dollars per year, hundreds of billions building out these AI data centers. And when you're spending that much money into the economy, I mean, it's hard to be in recession. But again, that's only really those effects are only really being seen in, you know, California, Texas, some of these areas that have a lot of AI data centers. most of the the American population is in recession and there are you know the unemployment figures are ridiculous because they're grossly underestimated because so many people in the US when they lose their job they go drive for Uber or whatever like Door Dash or whatever they find some kind of gig work so they're not actually applying for unemployment and they're not included in the unemployment statistics so the real unemployment or underemployment rate is way way higher than the official statistics show. If we can even believe the official statistics, because let's not forget that Trump fired the previous head of the BLS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and put in a yes man who was a big Trump supporter and very ideological. And then, you know, you have this inflation issue that you've been talking about. I mean, I haven't been in the US in several years, but just looking at the data, it's crazy. And and I know a lot of people in the US tell me that the data is also a gross underestimate and the the actual consumer price inflation in the US is probably much higher than the CPI data shows, especially in food inflation, which has been crazy. And you know, now you have gasoline prices skyrocketing. I mean, it's a catastrophe. Like the only reason that Trump won the election is because the Democrats lost. It's because Biden was extremely unpopular. He was a walking zombie who didn't even know where he was half the time. And then they they tried to the Democrats tried to force in this extremely unpopular candidate who didn't even go through the the primary process. They just anointed Kamla Harrison. She's our candidate. Despite the fact that when she ran in the previous primaries in 2020, 20 Yeah. 2020, she was so unpopular, she had singledigit approval, singledigit support among the Democrats in the primary. So they put in their least popular candidate with no charisma after they had this zombie who everyone hated as president and was a disaster. So obviously the Democrats lost. Trump falsely claimed that he would bring down inflation and stop waging wars and he lied about both of them. Trump has massively violated his two biggest promises. He's going to get crushed in the midterm elections unless he does something significant to try to have a big turnaround and he hopes that this China trip could be part of that. I think he is living in another planet and he's screwed either way because first of all inflation is a lagging indicator. It takes months for a lot of these inflationary pressures to work their way through the economy. And we're going to see much worse inflation in the upcoming months. Even if the war in Iran against Iran ends tomorrow, even if there's a peace deal tomorrow, the worst of the inflation has not yet been seen. Because it's going to take several weeks or even months for all of these supply chain issues to really start being felt. There's going to be a food crisis because fertilizer exports have been paralyzed by the USIsraeli war in Iran because so many of the chemicals used and the compounds used in fertilizers like ura come from the Persian Gulf. And this means that fertilizer prices have skyrocketed as ura prices have skyrocketed. And it's very difficult for many farmers, especially in the global south, to get fertilizer. And we just passed the planting season. So there are going to be food shortages which is going to lead to more food inflation. I mean like at every level the economy is going to get worse in the US and around the world. We're going to see more energy crisis, more inflation crisis, probably a massive food crisis. I and Trump caused all of this. It was totally unnecessary. Furthermore, you already had higher rates of inflation because of the tariffs. Yeah. Because the US doesn't really produce much. It It's so dependent on imports. So, when Trump put very high tariffs on imports, that is a regressive tax. That is a tax that falls disproportionately on poor and working-class Americans who have lower disposable income. They spend much more of their paycheck on very basic goods and services, especially food, especially gasoline, especially medicine, many of these things that are imported and that are very that are very impact very much impacted by these inflationary pressures. So, you know, I think Trump would love to have some kind of great deal that, you know, will lead to all this investment and and increased trade, but like I said, I don't expect that significant of an agreement to be made. I'm sure Trump will announce something, but I think it will be exaggerated and will not be that significant. And you know, Trump, what did they say? You made your bed, now you sleep in it. Like, this is this is what Trump did. Like, he caused all of this. It was totally unnecessary. He caused it and now he's going to suffer the consequences. And China won't be bailing out the United States. Uh doesn't want to nor can it really because as uh you've noted uh this is fundamental to the United States. This is this is this was policy decisions based on uh the as China would call it uh uh different development paths of these two countries that uh uh you know China is not there to reconcile is not there to fix for the United States uh and whatever you know there's friendliness of course China wants this meeting to go very well especially at public relations level. It seems like from Chinese media, from reports, there's no real huge expectations. You just said it's it's likely going to be exaggerated because there's not a huge expectation here. Uh I I think China would be happy with just uh things not getting worse. Uh and it seems like that's where the Trump administration, Donald Trump is because he's going there and he's talking very friendly. And that's an indicator that uh uh the United States, Donald Trump especially, does not want to be rocking the boat with China amid all of these crises you just outlined here, Ben. Uh any final thoughts as we uh end uh get close to the end here? Yeah, I mean, it's so funny this idea that that Trump could force or pressure China to bail him out. It's like after you punch someone in the face multiple times and then you come back to them and say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, bro. Hey, friend. Can you can you lend me some money, please? I really need some money." It's like you have to ignore everything the US has been doing to China now for the past decade. That again started with Trump in his first term. Now Trump pretends pretends that, you know, this is all different and then he and that he never did that. But Trump is the one who started the trade war against China in the first place. Trump is the one who put the sanctions on Huawei and oversaw the basic kidnapping of the CFO Mwan Joe. Trump is the one who was backing the Hong Kong riots. 1 hourTrump is the one who started all of these sanctions and this propaganda about Sinyang. That was all in Trump's first term. And now in Trump's second term, last year he massively escalated this trade war against China. But this time was very different. China demonstrated this second term that it has massive leverage and it scared the US. That's the big difference between the first Trump term and the second Trump term. That's why Trump is acting much more politely. That's why Trump wanted to come to Beijing. Yes. because the US now recognizes that China has much more leverage over it than it has over China. So I think this has been very humbling for the US empire like the war against Iran. Yeah. I mean I guess you could say it would be humbling if these US imperial strategists were capable of drawing lessons from these issues, but you also don't know if they actually believe their own propaganda. Like Trump believes that Iran lost the war. He believes that he won. That's what he keeps telling everyone. Like I said, that's just obviously just propaganda for his own base. But does he really believe that? If he does, then he's even more delusional than I think than a lot of people realize. But when it comes to China, I mean, it's just so clear that with rare earths, with the Chinese market, with US dependence on Chinese consumer goods, which are needed to keep inflation down, like like China has all of this leverage over the US and the US does not have much leverage over China. And this really explains why Trump is acting so politely in Beijing. Yeah. And this has been a trend uh since the beginning of the administration. There was the initial hawkishness, the tariffs, and then suddenly everything started to blow up and it's only gotten worse and the tone has shifted at least for now. Uh Ben and all of this I think uh all of your analysis is very instructive for the audience. Uh I want to make sure everybody knows that Ben Norton's uh geopolitical economy report YouTube channel. You should all be subscribing to it. You should all follow it and uh watch his uh videos. Uh and so do so. The video description has that link below. Uh all the plays support this channel are also in the video description below. Hit the like button before you go. Uh tomorrow actually in about I will be talking to Victor Gao about uh the meeting what actually happened uh because by the time we wake up or for Ben by the time it starts to be close to his bedtime more will be known about what has happened at this summit. Uh but Ben any final words before we head out of here? No I'm glad you're having on Victor Gao. He's one of the best analysts. And like I said, I mean, I don't think people should have super high expectations for China. This is kind of more of just a diplomatic visit. It's just a symbol of trying to reduce tensions because China doesn't want a new cold war. China doesn't want this massive conflict with another very powerful nuclear country. But, you know, we know that the US government violates every agreement that it signs. As Putin says, the US is agreement incapable. So even if they announce something, whatever it is, don't expect Trump to follow it. Now, all right. Well, on that note, we can close here. Okay. So, hit the like button before you go. Go to the video description and subscribe and follow Ben Norton's channel. And uh you can actually find now not only all the places support this channel in the video description, but you can find on my YouTube page uh that the uh Victor Gal live stream is now public. So you can save the day, you can hit the notification button for that. And in about , 11 a.m. Eastern, we will begin that program. All right, so without further ado, everyone, hit the like button before you go. I will see you tomorrow. I will see you in about . Bye-bye.
