Iran denies US claims on ballistic missile and IAEA inspection; Trump reacts | Janta Ka Reporter Janta Ka Reporter Jun 23, 2026
Iran has firmly rejected US claims that the Islamic Republic agreed to discuss its ballistic missile programme as part of a peace deal. Tehran also said that it has not agreed to any IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in Pakistan that ballistic missiles saved his country from turning into another Gaza. When asked to comment on the Iranian claims, Donald Trump said that the Iranians were wrong. Rifat Jawaid captures the day's big developments with his sharp commentary.
Transcript
Iran has exposed the US claims by firmly rejecting the lies on the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program. Iranian President Masud Peshkan today said in Pakistan that there was absolutely no way Iran would discuss its ballistic missile program. Iran has also rejected American claims on the country allowing IAEA inspection of its nuclear sites. The deranged occupant of the White House has said that the difference between Venezuela and Iran was that the latter was a Muslim country. The US Senate has voted to curb Trump's war powers on Iran. And a UN Commission of Inquiry has finally said that Israeli barbarians are indeed committing genocide in Gaza by deliberately targeting children. Protests in Albania are turning violent against the illegal sale of an environmentally protected island to Trump's daughter and son-in-law. This would be the broad focus of my video tonight. Also in this video, another proof of the Israeli control of the UK Parliament. The UK parliament was forced to discuss the Israeli influence on British politics, but Israeli stoes in parliament hijacked the debate by crying anti-semitism. So please stay tuned. So it seems Israeli lab dog Trump and his minions including JD Vance weren't telling us the truth over the outcome of the Switzerland talks. Remember how we were told that Iran had agreed to let the IAEA inspectors inspect its nuclear facilities in exchange for access to its frozen funds in Qatari banks. Vans had also added that even then Iran was not going to be able to use its own money as it desired. We were also told that Iran had agreed to discuss its ballistic missile program. But the Iranian president Masud Peskyan today made it clear that the question doesn't arise. His argument was simple. Iranian ballistic missiles were what stopped the US and Israeli terrorist from turning the Islamic Republic into another Gaza. He was speaking in Pakistan. Hey is the English voice over done by Kibria. We will never surrender and there would never be. If we didn't have the missiles we built to defend ourselves, Israel and the US would have plowed Iran like they did Gaza, sparing neither old nor young. They talk about human rights. It's a big lie. And if we couldn't defend ourselves, they certainly wouldn't have spared our country and would have destroyed our power. Therefore, we will never ever negotiate with anyone about our defensive capabilities. Trump was asked about the Iranian denial on the outcome of the Swiss talks. As expected, he effectively called the Iranian liars. Iranians are saying there's no scheduled visit for the IAEA inspector. Was that part of your agreement? They're wrong. They're wrong. They're wrong. They know they're wrong. They told us inside and we have it down 100% inspections. And if they were right, I'd cancel the meetings right now. When will those from your view, Mr. President, when will those inspectors actually be on the ground? At the appropriate time. At the appropriate time. There's no rush, but they'll be on the ground at the appropriate time. Remember only a few weeks ago this delusional fool from the White House wanted Iran's complete surrender. Today he was sharing his joy on just signing a peace deal with Iran. As you know, we just achieved a historic peace agreement with Iran to end the conflict in the straight of Hormuz. And by the way, yesterday 19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the straight of Hormuz, a very beautiful place. That's the most that's the most oil in the history of the straight. It's never been any you've never seen anything like that. It's called an oil gushia. And most importantly, we are ensuring one thing very importantly because this is why I did it. I did it for this reason. 99% for this. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. And they've agreed to that. But remember, this wasn't easy. We had 47 years worth of pre presidents and other people, other countries, too. We're not the only one that never did anything. They were the bully of the Middle East. And now we're leaving Iran with no navy, no air force, no anti-aircraft, no missile capability, no nuclear program. We're leaving them without any nuclear capacity. And they've agreed to that and we're getting along quite well. Although, if you read the fake news, you never know. Think of it. The fake news, they have no army. They have no navy. They have no air force. They have no anti-aircraft. We can fly over to Ren just at will. Nobody gonna do anything to us. And then I read the fake news that they're doing quite well. They're not doing quite well. These people right there. Look at all of them. Oh, whoa. Whoa. That's a lot of press. That's almost as much press as Bo had at the White House last week when he knocked out his opponent in the first round. I think you had more. Bo had more press. But the Iran economy has been crushed and their defense industrial base has been damaged so severely that it'll take them many years to rebuild. Many, many years. And now we're trying to work out a deal that's fair. He then told his audience at a public event that the difference between Venezuela and Iran was that Iranians were Muslims, whatever that is supposed to mean. But this Israeli slave wanted to replicate Venezuela and Iran country 91 million people and much different ideology. The the ideology of the Muslims is slightly different than the ideology of the Catholics. We have the Catholics and the Muslims slightly different but Venezuela's been great and Iran's been great. I mean you know Trump's secretary of thri Marco Rubio too rejected the Iranian claims on the IA inspection of his nuclear facilities Iran sir yesterday on on Iran sir okay yesterday the Iranians said that they had not agreed to inspection i.e be contradicting what vice president said. What is your understanding of what they Well, we know what they we know what they agreed to. I don't know why they have to say the things they say. Whatever their internal or domestic politics is, I guess they'll navigate it. But we know what they agreed to do. And now they'll either do it or they won't. And if they do, the process moves forward. And if they don't, the president will have some decisions to make. This rabid supporter of the Gaza genocide is in the UAE to salvage ties with key Arab states after they were let down by Trump during the Iran war. While Trump was busy gathering all his resources to protect the settler colony, the Arab countries were left to fend for themselves. Some experts believe that Rubio's trip may have been designed to pleate America's old Arab allies. is America as a strategic ally that can be relied upon uh is now very much in question in the GCC. And to be fair, yes, it is about the outcome of this war, an inconclusive outcome from an American perspective to to say the least. Uh but it also has a much longer track record. It's Obama with the JCPOA and the nuclear agreement with Iran not having uh coordinated and consulted with the GCC. It is the first Trump term and not coming to the defense of the GCC after Iranian drones were landing on Saudi oil fields in andah. Uh it is also Biden and the pariah comments and not wanting to shake hands in in Ri. It's all the above culminating with the outcome of this war. So for these Gulf countries, it needs to be all about daunt. need to come to accommodations with Iran because they do not fully trust uh the United States. But longer term, it's not just daunt, it's also deterrence. They have to stand up their own military capabilities to get to the very challenges and the very issues that you asked about, which is those drones that menace their skies and these ballistic missiles that President Trump right now doesn't seem to think is much of a problem. This is on a day a UN commission finally said what we have been saying all along that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. But genocide loving compromised politicians from the west and their propaganda outlets such as the BBC, Sky News, CNN, New York Times, Fox News, Guardian and the list goes on. They would still want to hide Israeli savagery in Gaza. That is the reason why they're quick to jump every time a guest mentions that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. And returning to Iran, not just Peshkan, even Iranian foreign minister sayas Saraki has said time and again that the US simply could not be trusted. We are interested in negotiation but only if the other side is serious. and is in line of real negotiations. We have no trust to Americans. This is a fact and this is the m this is the main obstacle in the way of any diplomatic effort. I think all of you know that we have every reason not to trust Americans while they have no reason not to trust us. In 2015, we made a nuclear deal with Americans together with other members of the security council in Germany. But only one year after only one year after it was concluded, the new US administration which was the first term of Trump administration withdrew from that deal with no justification with no reason. And then in 2025 in June again we entered into negotiation with them after five rounds of negotiation they decided to attack us and we had 12 days of war in last year. This year again they offered negotiation and the US delegation confirmed that yes we made significant progress today and hopefully we can conclude a deal very soon but only 2 days after on 28th February they made an aggression together with Israelis against my people. So the most important issue right now is the question of trust. We cannot trust Americans at all. Meanwhile, in another massive setback, the US Senate today passed a resolution that would stop Trump from waging an illegal war against Iran. The resolution was passed by 50 to 48 vote with four Republicans. Yes, four Republicans. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Marosski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, breaking with the party to support its adoption. John Fetman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat to vote against the resolution. Just before the vote, Senator Chris Van Holland had made a passionate defense of this resolution. Those pushing to abandon this agreement owe the American people an answer to a simple question. What's your what's your alternative? What comes next? More lives lost, more money wasted with no path forward because that is the only alternative they are offering. I want peace to prevail and I hope thisou becomes the foundation of a broader diplomatic settlement. But I also hope, colleagues, we will learn something from this needless tragedy. The calls for military adventurism, the promises of quick victory, the fantasies of regime change under the circumstances that were deployed, and the endless effort to undermine diplomacy led us directly to this disaster. And we should not repeat those mistakes. We should take a stand today and end this war. And we should finally start putting the interests of the American people ahead of costly and unnecessary conflicts. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this war powers resolution. Elsewhere, brave Albanians have continued to stage protest across the country against the corrupt pro-Israeli prime minister Adi Rama. This Israeli stoogge had sold the environmentally protected Sazan island to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. 14 minutesViolent protesters also vandalized the construction site. I will now leave you with this clip from yesterday's parliament debate. debate in the UK over the Israeli influence on British politics. MPs were forced to debate this issue after more than 100,000 people in the UK signed an online petition. But the meltdown amongst the Zionist was for everyone to see. Aside from five Muslim MPs, everyone, I mean everyone from the Labor, Conservative, Liberal, Democrat, and Reform, said that questioning Israeli influence on British politics was anti-semitic. The five Muslim MPs, including one Labor MP, Tahir Ali, fiercely put forward their argument. Here are some highlights put together by the five pillars website. And I think it's fair to say that for millions up and down this country, the government's approach towards Israel has defied the most basic logic, justice, and humanity, continued arm sales, amid mass extermination, the weaponization of terrorism lord, silent disscent, the welcoming of wanted war criminals on the steps of 10 Downing Street. With every decision this government has made, it's not only reasonable to ask questions about political influence in Britain, it's necessary. British democracy is by the British people for the British people and accountable to the British people. No foreign government, no matter who they are, should abuse our system for privileges at the cost of British interests. Historically, many foreign actors try to meddle in our politics for their interests. Over the past decade, the Israeli government has been guilty of exactly that. Guilty of meddling in our politics for the interests of what is ultimately a foreign nation. Pro-Israeli lobby groups have paid hundreds of thousands in political donations in the UK. The evidence is countless, which I will refrain from sharing due to time limits. If we believe in democracy, then we must demand scrutiny. If we value our sovereignty, then we must demand accountability. If we believe in British independence, then we must ensure no foreign state, whether Israel, China, Russia, Iran or India or any other country is permitted undue influence over our institutions. Does he believe that we need more AI weapons that Israel has used to shoot at genitalia of children in Gaza? Thank you. uh the use of AI across all of our uh all of our society and all applications and industries is changing rapidly. But what I would gently suggest to him is actually that the best way to guarantee peace is to prepare for war so that our opponents respect us. In 2024, declassified UK June 2024 revealed 13 out of the then 25 members of the Labor cabinet received hundreds of thousands in donations from pro-Israel donors and that some 180 Britain's 650 MPs had accepted such funding during their political careers. That's one in four elected members. Um, if I can continue, please. The the 255 constituents that signed this petition and the 118,000 that signed uh from across the country would just like to hold our government and our system to account for these donations. We rightly sanction Russia for undermining democratic institutions, warn about the threat from China and Iran to our political system. Yet when substantial evidence of foreign influence concerns Israel, our principles of transparency, scrutiny, and accountability appear to vanish. Uh I want to concentrate my speech on particularly Elbbit, which supplies around 85% of the Israeli military drones and land-based military equipment. as international court of justice considers alle allegations of genocide and while the ICC has issues arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister and former defense minister Elbbit continues to profit from the genocide in Gaza. United Nation investigators have documented the repeated use of armed quadcopter drones against Palestinian civilians. One of those systems, the Lonius drone is manufactured by Albbit. Elbbit has a significant present in my city of Leicester through its manufacturing and technology operations. The company generates billions of dollars in alien revenue. Annual revenue while supplying military equipment used in a conflict that is subject of allegations of genocide before the international court of justice. That's why parliamentary scrutiny of its access to ministerial ministers is essential. It is deeply alarming that freedom of information disclosures reveal repeated meetings between elbbit executives and the home office. Briefing papers have shown ministers were preparing to reassure the company in response to pan action protests. They also revealed that home office officials had been in contact with the police regarding those protests while another meeting was scheduled to include a representative from the attorney general's office. It is disturbing that while ministers meet privately with executives from a company whose weapons are alleged to have been used in acts now under scrutiny before international courts, those who want to challenge those activities through protests increasingly face being associated with terrorism. While the suppliers of war and genocide are granted meeting with ministers, those opposing the machinery of war risk being treated as a threat. Anti-semitism in the UK is on the rise and it has no place in our society. The increase in attack since the appalling terror attacks of October 7th with Heaton Park in my in the burough of Berry uh my constit very near my constituency just one example of the shocking uh attacks and fear and prejudice angled and angered towards the Jewish community. And this cannot be divorced from the debate and the debate of this nature. We should condemn the readiness, the ease, the tendency to hold 300,000 British Jews collectively accountable for the actions of the Israeli government. A standard never applied to other communities in relation to foreign governments. never get away. On that point, can I can I ask the minister um why so many in this house and including him are conflating the Jewish faith and Jewish people with the actions of the state of Israel because that's not what's been said within the petition and that's not what what's been said within this house. No matter how uncomfortable it may be for some in this chamber, the state of Israel stands accused of committing genocide in Gaza. Minister, do you agree? I do not agree with that. That's it from me. Thank you very much for your support of this platform and our journalism. If you haven't subscribed to my channel, please do so because that's one of the many ways you can support independent journalism. God bless you all.
Iran’s Brutal Hormuz Move BLOWS UP on Trump, Israel in PANIC | Larry Johnson Danny Haiphong Started streaming 34 minutes ago #iran #iranwar #trump
Former CIA Analyst Larry Johnson joins the show to discuss Iran's brutal show of strength to Trump on the Strait of Hormuz as the war reaches a breaking point amid Israeli attempts to sabotage the MoU.
Iran Observer @IranObserver0 BREAKING: Iranian Armed Forces just sent a Warning to all Ships near the Strait of Hormuz
"Transiting in the Strait of Hormuz is only possible with IRGC Navy permission and on designated routes
If any vessel attempts to transit the Strait without our permission, with AIS turned off, or outside the designated routes, it will be responsible for any consequences and any danger"
This is Danny Haiphong and here are the biggest news stories for today. So, uh, the IRGC has issued a devastating warning to ships in the straight of Hormuz that are seeking to transit without its permission. Quote, and here it is, uh, quote, uh, uh, transiting the straight of Hormuz is only possible with IRGC naval permission. And if any vessel attempts to pass the straight without the permission of the US of the Iranian Navy, it will be responsible for any consequences that are experienced. Now MP Galibbah has put uh Muhammad Galibbah the head of the parliament in Iran has put down Trump's assertion that Iran is giving everything right now to the um uh to the United States saying that the only crop harvesting right now is the decades of mistrust with the United tates and also uh we have learned that there Is massive panic occurring right now inside of Israel? A new Hebrew University of Jerusalem poll finds that 92% of Israelis believe Iran has emerged the winner of the war in this deal with the United States, indicating a level of panic inside of Israel not seen in decades. So, with me to discuss all of this and more is Larry Johnson, former CIA analyst and current geopolitical commentator, analyst, and journalist. Uh, Larry, good to see you again, Senor. How are you? I am great. Everyone, make sure you hit the like button. That helps boost the show in YouTube's algorithm. So, yes, let's get into this. A ship was reportedly struck after that warning, Larry, from the IRGC that the Iranian Navy must be sought permission from in order for any vessel to uh go through. We have not heard any response yet specifically from Washington about this particular incident, but this is a big blow to the uh uh reports that the United States is getting everything it wants from Iran. what is going on here and your thoughts about these latest developments. Well, anybody wants to know what's going on, they need to only go with respect to the straight of Hermuz. Go to marinetra.com and it brings up a real-time map of what ships are where, what ships are going through. And right now there's nothing going through or right over let's see right over on uh the coast uh just off the off the the western coast of Kempsh Island. You've got a small boat that's going to Burabos. Uh and you know three three little ships that are headed towards Bonder Boss. Um the only ship uh it it's called the Halty. It's it's it's headed into uh the straight and that's about it. Uh the ones that have recently come out are are all headed to uh China or Pakistan or Singapore. So, you know, Trump celebrating, oh boy, we got 19 million barrels of oil out on Tuesday and there all these ships that are flowing. He let's say he was confabulating. He was uh saying some things that just are not accurate. They are inaccurate. And uh the the you know Iran remains in full control of the straight of Hormuz. And the reality is there's nothing the United States can do militarily to open that straight 4 minutesat a cost that the United States is willing to pay. And let me explain what I mean by that. Um, could the United States devote enough, you know, concentrate military assets, both the naval ships and personnel and air assets and and and ultimately silence Iran's ability to retaliate? Yes. But it would come at a tremendous cost. significant loss of life, significant loss of naval assets and it would it would take it would take more than six months in my view to to try to do that. And and that's saying even if they decided to do that to mobilize the force necessary to conduct such an operation would take at least a year. So that's what I'm saying. there's they they they just don't can't flip a switch and all of a sudden, oh, we're going to open it up. So, Iran holds the trump cards here. Uh then you you've got these other problems that face uh the straight of, you know, when you pull up that that map and you you zoom out. Oh my god. The you know the Persian Gulf is filled with with ships that have been sitting there for four months just accumulating barnacles on the hole. And the the salinity of the water is uh something that's going to have to be, you know, the ships will all need sort of a clean up maintenance routine before they can actually be returned to service. So, it's not like these ships are sitting out there just ready to run over to shore and then they get a complete reload of they get filled with oil and then they sell off and things are back to normal. No, that that's not happening. And and that's where Trump is being misleading. Uh the other thing that Trump didn't really unveil is is the fact that why did he sign theou? Why did he do such a quick reversal before they were dragging their feet? It is because he was finally briefed on how dire the situation is with respect to heavy crude oil which is used refined to produce uh aviation fuel and diesel fuel. And and and I I just learned this recently. I didn't know this before, but a refinery, if it's going to produce, if it's got that heavy crude, it's got to make a choice. Are we going to produce diesel or are we going to produce aviation fuel? It's not like we can do both at the same time. They can only do one at the same time. And I'm not sure what the time lag is between once you complete a refining process to produce diesel that how easy is it to transition and move to producing the jet fuel. I don't have the answer to that. I'm sure somebody out there does. Um, but that's there's a there is a shortage potentially within two weeks that we run out of that heavy crude and so that there's going to be a real crisis of diesel/avviation fuel that that there's no easy solution to that there right now there's not enough crude flowing out of the Persian Gulf. It's been 20% cut off for 4 months and and to compensate for that, the US has been drawing down a strategic petroleum reserve. Well, that's that it's it's basically uh was it Jackson Brown or the Eagles running on empty? That's what we're doing. Running on empty. Uh and what once it once it hits that level, um right, you know, right now we're we're probably at about a hundred. We have a we have let's call it uh 320 million barrels of oil left in the strategic petroleum reserves in the United States. Of that though you have to keep 140 million in place to stabilize the salt caverns in which that oil is is stored because if you take too much out because the way they remove the oil they have to pump water in. Water mixes with salt pretty well and create salt water. Oil doesn't mix with salt. So that's why they use the store oil there. But if you have to pump in enough water, all of a sudden that water can soften, destabilize those those caverns and they collapse. So basically you got 180 million barrels of oil. But that's not all heavy crude. It's light crude. And I think actually the ratio is is about 2/3 of it is the light crude which makes gasoline but the other is u you know let's say you got basically 40 million barrels of heavy crude well you know when you look at the consumption on a daily basis daily on a daily uh basis in the United States overall consumption is 20 million barrels of oil a day. So let's just say that the diesel aviation fuel of that what is it uh 25% 50%. That's another good question to ask the AI search engines. But so this is this is coming to a head and so the straight of Hormuz remains this critical node that is uh that that it represents a threat to the economy not just the United States of the world. Let's get into Larry what Iran means in particular about Oops, sorry that's the wrong uh source here. I have to remove 10 minutesthat one and add it to the stage. Here we go. Uh let's get into this. Uh the uh uh drop site news reported this that in this warning uh they said that a new route announced that there were authorities that announced a new route for shipping traffic through the straight of roots without informing or coordinating with the Islamic Republic of Iran and that it was unacceptable and completely dangerous saying and there was an Oman and UN affiliated international maritime organization that announced a temporary shipping corridor to allow hundreds of ships and roughly 11,000 stranded seafarers to transit the straight of Hormuz. And this comes, Larry, as you know, uh, the Trump administration is saying that the straight of Hormuz is completely open and that ships are now moving through in record numbers. But Iran is saying that this Yeah, that's complete [ __ ] Just go right now. Type type in maritimetra.com. Take a look. Right. Right. Well, your thoughts about the danger that Iran is speaking of. What does Iran mean by the danger of this uh shipping route? And I'll find that information as you talk. Well, I mean, Iran's taking control. They're going to maintain control and and of who can sell where and when. Uh, so if the ships turn off their transponders, they forget that they still got radar and the radar can still show up this, you know, this unknown target and Iran's going to send out its patrol boats to figure out who who are you, what are you doing, and those patrol boats are armed in a way that they can fire a missile into the ship. So, you know, it's not like these ships are flowing in and out. That that's what's so crazy about this. It's It's a scanned scanned number. Yeah. But you got to ask yourself, why are they lying about this? Right. Right. Well, here's the live map. Uh is this the map you were speaking about? Uh yeah, maybe not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, drill down. You drill down to the Persian Gulf. Keep going. Keep going. Here we go. Right. Yeah. Keep going. Keep going. Go back to your Go back to your left and up. Up. Here we go. Yeah. Go back. Straight up. Okay, there it keep going. Now drill in again. Keep going up. You go. No, you're coming back. Go drill in. Yeah. Here we go. There. This is it. Okay. There's the straight of Hummus. Wow. Okay. There's a lot of ships in there. A lot of ships are in there, but they're not going through the straight. Correct. Nope. Well, they're Yeah. And that's real time. Yep. So, that's what I'm saying. They're lying. And so, you got got to step back and say, "Why the And look how many are in there." Now, true. The other thing I you know, we keep hearing that the that the Gulf is mined yet. We've seen no evidence of ships being hit with a mind and blowing up. M uh I I'm I'm wondering if that was just a a scop as opposed to being an actual intelligence, you know, an actual reality. I don't know. Well, why would Iran need to mine if they have the capability of their navy has the capability of striking ships anyway? I mean, that's a lot of invest. That's an investment. And it's also hard to demine as well. Yeah, I No, I agree because the the I mean the last time they tried they mined the Persian Gulf to stop the movement of ships was back in 1987 during the war with Iraq and at that time Iran had limited naval capability. They could did have ships that could go out and drop mines. And those were mines are trying to create a threat that would keep other ships from transiting, trying to cut off funds from Iraq because remember the United States is funding helping fund that war against Iran. And so Iran did did the quite reasonable, rational thing in trying to retaliate. But they, you know, candidly, they don't need mines now. They've got underwater many submarines. They've got underwater drones. They got surface drones. They got surface vessels that with uh um they can carry uh uh you know boatto- ship missiles, they'll call it. U they've got aviation drones. They've got uh short range cruise missiles uh you know coastal defense cruise missiles. They got short-range ballistic missile. They got a lot of options that they can threaten and hit a particular ship. They don't have to create a a threat that ties everybody down unless, you know, that may have been their purpose. As long as the insurance companies, Lloyds of London in particular, perceive the possibility of the the strat threat from mines, they're not going to let those ships move. So yeah, there's there are a number of built-in obstacles that preventing their ships from moving. Not to mention being able can is there any oil at the terminals, any liquid natural gas at the terminals to load up with and contra the LNG is very, you know, damaged and maybe a year or more from being repaired. So, you know, that's another issue. What what we can say definitively is since the straits opened under thisou more than a week ago, uh no no ships of any consequence have passed through the straits carrying oil to the United States or to Europe. It's going to Asia. Yeah. Yeah. That I mean that's Iran has made that very clear. And yet, uh, Larry, uh, the United States, the Trump administration continues to put out this idea that everything that Iran is going to get out of this deal is going to come right back to the United States, whether it's oil shipments, uh, because of the relieved sanctions, the temporary relief of oil sanctions, and of course, uh, the, uh, uh, unfrozen assets, the $12 million that reportedly has gotten back to Iran from its stolen assets in places like Qatar. Uh but Galibbah says straight away, I mean, how are negotiations actually going with comments like these? It's obvious that the Iranian side is not trusting the United States. Uh that there's very little love on that side. And from the US side, uh not a lot of comments. Trump is putting out a very enthusiastic framing, but uh uh I think the general public in the United States is very much uh not trusting the United States's behavior in this deal despite wanting it to work out. The vast majority of people want to work out. Vast majority of people see this deal as not uh being sustainable in the long term. What are your thoughts on this? Well, let's turn the question around. So, if the United States doesn't like the deal, what can it do about it? Huh? That's a good question. I mean, what can it do? Is it going to invade Iran? No, it doesn't have the ability to do that right now. And it appears um I don't I know that the the orders have been drawn up to start the redeployment of US air assets and military personnel that were sent forward. Um so uh it it it's been drawn up for at least two days, two three days. It has not been signed off on yet. uh once once it's signed off on uh then as they start to flow back the ability of the United States to carry out attacks on Iran will diminish not increase it will be less capable of using any kind of military force against Iran. to use military for to use effective force against Iran would require maintaining the existing assets we have and probably boosting them. The problem is this uh you remember we talked about uh the there's a supply you know they call it sweet crude sour crude. So it's the sour crude out of which uh the you know out of which comes the aviation fuel the diesel. So at the start of the war you had, you know, you had this level of diesel being produced, this level of 19 minutesaviation fuel being produced, and they were essentially meeting the demand. The war starts. What happens? The demand for aviation fuel goes up. Why? Because the the civil airliners are still flying, but they need that fuel. You now got all these jets conducting these combat operations that they weren't previously. Well, and now you're doing that at a time when the supply of oil that you had was here at the start or before the 28th and now with the shutdown of the straight, it's dropped 20%. So, you got less supply, more demand, price shoots up, but that just because the price shoot up doesn't mean that everybody's demand can be satisfied. Now, that was uh so if the United States decides to return to war now, we're going just as we've depleted some of our weapon systems, we've actually depleted our fuel source and and it goes back to, you know, running on empty. So, this is United States has got limited options what it can do to uh to Iran uh from a military standpoint. So, it's it's going to have to rely upon the diplomatic side. Yeah. And uh the United States engaging in in diplomacy is uh is really going to be interesting to watch given the history that it has with that. Yeah. It's it's like watching a pig riding a bicycle. Yeah. Yeah. That's uh that's putting it very lightly, but also I think a very very welcome image. Uh but Larry, does does Israel have any idea? They they seem to be so rapidly obsessed with war, greater Israel, genocide. You know, I I put this up at the beginning. you know this Hebrew University of Jerusalem poll which also was collaborating with a think tank on this where and it wasn't only that 92% of Israelis believe that Iran is the winner. It's also that uh the uh Israelis now have a very low opinion of their government and of Netanyahu but because of the fact that they are uh that they are failing in their capacity to continue the war. This is how uh mindboggling it can be to think about what it's like inside of this colony. So, so Larry, Israel is still attacking Lebanon. I mean, that's happened overnight. I can pull that up. It will Iran uh respond? How does this go from here when Israel seems to be the one playing quote unquote spoiler? And now Netanyahu is saying that Trump has agreed that uh uh Israel can stay in Lebanon and of course that means attack Lebanon. Your thoughts? What was the attack overnight? I hadn't seen that. Uh it seems in southern Lebanon uh Israeli defense ministers it was uh I don't I don't know if it was air it was a drone strike in southern Lebanon killing two people overnight yesterday. Okay. Yeah. So there there still is Go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, no. Um boom. There we go. This screen share is super annoying on StreamYard. All right. Here we go. Yeah. This happened overnight late uh June 24th. Yeah. So that that is that's not a scaled up attack. So uh I don't uh you know something something there will be that kind of violence and Israel deliberately try to get away with it. But uh I don't see that altering the 23 minutesceasefire so far. the the the statistic I find fascinating is the one you showed that 92% of the Israelis concede that hey Iran Iran won the war. You know what is what what's sort of crazy about that is if you watch Fox News in the United States, oh my god, United States won the war. Boy, Iran got its ass kicked. this this delusional nonsense that infests uh Washington DC uh with while acknowledged that Iran has won so far that doesn't mean that they're willing to accept any kind of status quo with Iran. They still remain convinced or committed to wanting to destroy Iran and eliminate the Palestinians. So that's you know there's I think an too too much discussion about BB Netany what does BB Netanyahu think what does BB Netanyahu's future what's going to happen to BB Netanyahu how you know BB Netanyahu doesn't matter one wit BB Netanyahu's only utility at this point is up up until recently he was generally seen as a positive asset for dealing with Americans making Americans feel comfortable with Israel uh once he's gone, you know, the corruption allegations surrounding him are substantial. Once he's gone, that's not going to change Israel's policy as far as its views towards the Palestinians or the Iranians. In fact, that may become more extreme. But what changes is how willing is the United States going to be to continue to fund this effort. And we saw even with a recent article by uh Sai Hirs that this divorce between Israel and the United tates is real. Uh Alistister Crook's wife Oling put out a great summary today or late yesterday about what the Hebrew press is saying about this divorce between the United States and Israel. So Israel is now rapidly coming into position where it no longer has the 100% guarantee that it can rely upon the United States to cover its ass. And so that is ultimately going to force it to change its calculation. H yeah. Well, in the meantime, as all of this catches up uh to Israel there, you know, there are reports. It seems like, you know, Israel and thei Israel and the Trump administration, I would say the Israeli regime, the Trump regime, they play a very similar kind of game, but uh uh maybe it looks a little different. Uh uh they both like to spin uh and spin and spin what is going on. And right now what uh the Israeli media, some Israeli media is saying is that uh Netanyahu has reportedly convinced Trump not that Israel should not withdraw from southern Lebanon despite Iran's uh protestations against this. Uh uh but there's also been reports that uh there are the Trump administration has like a list of restrictions over what Israel should and should not be doing. um those haven't come out publicly, but it does seem like uh because there's a deep need, a deep crisis to keep theou alive, uh uh Israel's behavior is an impediment to that, no doubt. Your thoughts? Yeah. Well, um the apparently the conversation between uh Netanyahu and Trump was very uh very uh pointed and uh you know I think uh even Sai Hurst described it as a divorce. So, uh, you know, what what what we're looking at here is, um, a fundamental change in the relationship between the United States and Israel. And look, we're seeing some of the political indications. Look at all the money Apex spent to get rid of Thomas Massie. So, they got rid of one congressman who was going to vote against him. And yet, three members of the Congress that traditionally voted for Apac and with Israel, they got they got defeated on Tuesday. in New York City. So, you know, how how is that worked out? You spend all that money to to defeat one guy and you lose three more seats. That that's going in reverse, not going in the right direction. Uh and and I think there is a growing sentiment that the United States is too beholdened uh to Israel. And I mean, let's let's face it, the the the number just we're not talking Zionist. Let's talk Jewish Americans in general who ident you know and and the majority of Jewish Americans don't identify as Zionists. They're only 10 million and you know they by and large vote on the Democrat side of the ledger anyway. So uh from the standpoint of the you got to ask why the Republicans are so beholden to such a tiny tiny sliver of the of the uh electorate. And then within the Zionist element, the estimates, you know, someone I had someone ask Yak Yakov Rapkin, uh, you know, his estimate is about 3 million out of the 10 million. So, you know, it's a it's an inconsequential amount, but yet we we end up conditioning and uh uh, you know, using it as a litmus litmus test for people. I mean, you had John Federman the other night was on Sean Hannity and and he was saying that if you don't support Israel, you're unAmerican. Oh, he's a nasty Zionist. Can you imagine saying if you don't support Madagascar, you're you're an anti- Madagascarite. If you you know to pick any country in the world where you'd require a loyalty oath from Americans to be the only way you can be a true American is you got to support this country overseas. give me a break. Sorry that you know and Americans like me and others are getting fed up with this. You know, you know, Israel should mind its own damn business, stay in its own lane. That the United States is not beholdened to surrender, submit, bow before Israel at all. That is a growing sentiment among uh a growing number of American voters. That has the Israelis scared to death. Yeah. And it's across and it's across the political spectrum too. Those farthest left uh and and even people who consider themselves on the right. It's it's becoming a universal issue for Israel. I think that's what's fueling Israel's panic and desperation too is uh they're seeing these poll numbers. Uh people people are supporting this deal in the United States. I'll post some of I'll post some of that up. But uh you know I I'll also play what you're talking about here. here is John Federman. I mean, this guy is a nasty Zionist. He's someone, you know, he's one of these guys that uh along with, you know, other others in the Democratic party uh former Biden officials who have said, "Yeah, we would go to war with Iran anyway." I mean, I think this shows the bipartisan nature of the uh uh disease of Zionism in the United States government. All right, let me ask this. Why? Why the deep hatred for Israel? Why? Yeah, because because I mean if if you you have such contempt for Israel, I mean, of course, you're also anti-American and you're anti-western civilian civilization and you're, you know, seem anti- capitalism and the American way of life. I mean, now, you know, they're all socialists, of course. Now, now there's communists. uh and now Marxist and now they're proud of this and know of course we have P Hustle in Maine you know that's another one he's a self-avowed you know communist too now that's not even look down I mean this is what passes for political leadership Larry you know I say keep going guy you're going to turn the whole damn United States socialist if you keep talking like this because you look really bad here you look like a a raving uh really illiterate and absolutely imbecilic. Well, yeah. Yeah. Just take what he's saying and substitute the name of any other country and you'd be saying that that's [ __ ] outrageous. No. Hello. That's the reality. It's outrageous with especially with respect to uh Israel. And I heard one other commentator on a it was part of a panel where insisted that United States had no role in the creation of Israel. Excuse me? Are you that ignorant of history? Go to the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, where I grew up. And in fact, my wife and I for uh 10 months actually lived across the street from the Truman Library. And they have an entire room devoted to the creation of Israel and and the role that Harry Truman's uh you know former business partner uh who was Jewish played in persuading Truman to get the United States and and to help rally other countries to to get on behind the UN resolution that created the state of Israel. I mean the United States absolutely played a critical role in that. uh you know whether you know people want to pretend that didn't happen but that's just you know that's a lie right oh I mean the United States during that time period uh during World War II I mean there was a concerted policy to turn people away coming into the United States who might have been identified as Jewish and say go to Israel you know that was go there go settle there because there was obviously something brewing uh which we all know culminated in the Nagba uh not a few years later. So, uh it's absolutely ridiculous to think that the United States, given its growing superpower position as it was trying to get to and was not going to try to take advantage of something that was uh uh brewing in the wind, but uh burning in the wind, I should say. Uh now, uh Larry, I have a question about something that's been bothering me about uh you know, I feel like there's a propaganda war on many fronts. There's uh of course those uh in who are on the Trump side, MAGA, whatever if we want to call it that, you know, people who are trying to push Iran fully defeated. They are giving everything we want. Uh then there are others who uh oppose the US war and Israeli war on Iran but are now very suspicious of Iran's uh engagement in these negotiations and have brought up a point about Gaza. Uh and the uh first point of theou talking about an end to war on all fronts but not explicitly talking about Gaza. Now recently uh foreign minister of Iran Arachi said to Hamas that Iran is going to raise Gaza in these talks. And yet we are hearing so many uh talk about I see this all over social media among people who even you know maybe have traveled to Iran have uh uh really championed peace uh being very critical about this process. What do you make of these this engagement this kind of debate around the the veracity and the validity legitimacy of Iran's participation theou and whether they're making the right decision? I don't believe it's the right approach to take but I'm curious your thoughts about it. Well, is is Iran getting bombed on a daily basis? No. Nope. That right there. Um, has Iran been required to give up its sovereignty to surrender its control over the straight of Hormuz? No. Uh, has Iran demand that the ter territory of Lebanon be respected, both the territorial integrity and its sovereignty be respected? Has that been rejected? No. Yeah. No, it has not been. So, okay. Again, explain to me what the problem is, why this is bad for Iran. I don't get it. I have no idea. I mean, I it seems to me that there's such a deep nihilism. All right. And I get the point of wanting to see a country as uh uh resilient and as steadfast as Iran has been, wanting to keep pushing the envelope. However, this I don't believe is the right approach because this is a long I mean this this is not going to be something that is resolved I first of all there are very few wars that are resolved in a matter of less than a year. Uh but there's uh I don't think uh this is something that's going to uh stay in the status quo forever and ever and ever. The United States, Israel, they are who they are and Iran is who it is. And so I'm like maybe a little patience. Maybe Iran is doing what it feels like it needs to do and what it might be beneficial toward it. It it seems like they're gaining a lot of benefits from for themselves and that is a big gain for everybody. Yeah. Palestinians, Leb Lebanon, etc. But back to you. Well, I again um how long uh you know, Israel first invaded um Lebanon back in 1982. And so that's 44 years ago. Now, for the first time in 44 years, we have the United States signing a document that acknowledges the right of Iran to ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. Unheard of before. Absolutely unheard of before. So, yeah, that's why these these critics I I just turn to say, what is it exactly that you want? you know what what's the problem here? Uh do you know um you want to continue having Iranians killed and and American attacks or the that now you've got the United You've got the United States because of its economic peril because of what's coming down the pike that it has to negotiate doesn't like it the terms that Donald Trump he keeps trying to he refuses to acknowledge what the real terms of the agreement are and he keeps keeps pretending that it's something else. But the reality is what the reality is. And you know, the Iranians are letting Trump just step back and play his games, make his make his ridiculous claims that he's got this and that concession from Iran, which he doesn't. And then, you know, uh in the course in the course of all this, uh Iran's can, you know, making progress. It's not just not just Iran, you know, look at what is look at what is happening uh with the new security architecture being erected in the Persian Gulf with Pakistan playing a leading role. But they now you know on Sunday you last Sunday you had the foreign ministers of Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan meet. the Iranians weren't there because they were in the Iranian foreign minister was up in Switzerland meeting with Marco with JD Vance uh indirectly. So uh you you know you got you got tremendous movement right now of creating this security architecture that we've talked about to to the point that um it is uh it's becoming real. It's not just a it's not just some far off flaky idea. It there is actual movement forward on that. Yeah. Well, uh you know maybe we can talk more about about this and what are what is the impact of that then on the on the rest of the region? You have even uh mainstream publications talking about the United States's even just its presence in the region as being completely and wholly unproductive, counterproductive. Here is foreign policy magazine uh full of neocons. But this particular uh uh author who at the Kato Institute which is full of neocons Washington's Middle East military presence is uniquely counterproductive citing that it's actually a relatively new concept over the last few decades for the US to station as many troops and have as many bases as it does and that none of this actually provided not only any security but even meeting uh US objectives and interests not just uh so-called national security but even the uh very notion that these bases are uh increasing and expanding US influence 41 minutesand dominance in the region. So you have mainstream neocon light or straight up neocons talking like this. It seems like a pretty big shift and uh indicates that uh uh they're aware that the security architecture could very well be real in the future. Oh, no. Look, the security architecture is is fundamentally changing, you know. So, first, like with the Saudis, they've told the United States in no uncertain terms, we're not doing a damn thing with the Abraham Accord until the Palestinians, Israel's out of Gaza, out of the West Bank, and the Palestinians have a state. Until then, don't waste your time with us. um uh Qatar and the Saudis according to our our P Pakistani source that uh uh Pepe and I have been in touch with um is saying that they've got assurances or they have informed the Pakistanis that we're kicking the United States out. Qatar puts a 9 to 10 month window on it to close down aloud air force base and get the United States out of the region. So that, you know, that's real. Uh these various bases that were attacked and in large measure destroyed during the course of the war, uh they're not going to be rebuilt and they're certainly not going to be restaffed with a with a thousand of personnel. So, you know, we're you're really you're really looking at here uh a significant change uh in the US role in in in the Middle East um or West Asia, however you want to call it. the uh the vision of China and Russia in which the Arab, Turkish, Persian uh national national nationalities who are all under a banner of Islam come together to be perform their own security function that you know will will further terrify Israel because Israel can no longer use this divide and conquer strategy. They're going to face a united front that is frankly much more powerful militarily than than Israel is. Uh when you with the combined armies of Turkey, Egypt, and Iran and Iran's uh you know superior ballistic missile capability, it it's something that Israel is not prepared to confront. So yeah, we're this this whole war of choice initiated by the Israelis and Donald Trump's acquiescence, it's blowing up on them. It is it it's achieving the exact opposite outcomes that they anticipated. Yeah. And they don't even the Trump administration does not even sound convincing anymore. Uh I mean never they never did. What am I saying anymore? But even the level of confidence in their position, I I feel like whenever you see Marco Rubio now being paraded about, and this is somewhat parallel with the uh way the United States has handled the Ukraine conflict, I feel like when Marco Rubio gets out in front, it means that uh uh there is a loss of confidence in being able to achieve anything other than uh uh weak words. here is uh you know Marco Rubio was in Bahrain recently and I'm sure you're aware of the uh Gulf statement that was made uh about the need for a free flow of traffic in the street of Hormuz and a demand for it. Here was uh what Marco Rubio said at in Bahrain and then we're going to have chaos. So that is unacceptable. You can call it a toll, you can call it a fee, whatever you want to call it. It's a game of semantics. The reality of it is that no country on earth has a right to charge for the use of international waterways and that will never be an acceptable condition of any deal. The president's been fundamentally clear about that. So uh yet Trump has signed theou and fees are being charged in the trade for moves but you're well it's not it's not an international waterway. Yeah it is it is Iranian territorial waters. Halfway out is 12 miles out. That's Iranian territorial waters under international law. Period. They don't they say except for this. You know the uh England and France they could each they could insist that anybody want to travel the English channel could be charged. England England would control traffic halfway through halfway out and France could control the other half. they haven't done it. But you know this this notion that the the one the irony of this is 46 minutesthe one piece of possible international law that might apply to this is a law the United States has never signed because we don't recognize it as legitimate. So it's like Marco shut up. Okay just shut up. The reality is Iran is going to charge toll. The United States may not like it. Okay. What are you going to do about it? How are you going to change that reality? And the qu the answer is you're not. Yeah. and no there will be few others other than the United States who will and maybe Gulf countries that are under their vaselage that will protest this. uh Abasarachi has already said that they are pitching the institutional framework for a fee in the state of Hormuz to cover the services needed to manage it uh everywhere including to China and I don't see any protest coming from China given how firm China has been on Iran's sovereignty and the sovereignty uh of all countries in the region in the world to be able to uh defend themselves if needed and to protect uh their interest if needed. It It doesn't uh hinder China and it doesn't hinder really international trade whatsoever unless the United States tries to disrupt it, however foolhardy that may be. Yeah. Well, again, we get back to the question of what can the United States actually do to change the situation? What is its leverage? Um and you know right now uh the United States has been forced to vacate several of the bases that have been staples in the past and without without the US presence there. uh the the their prospects for further military action is extremely limited and last I you know the right now orders have been drawn up to start the withdrawal of US air and ground assets and naval assets from the region. Um to my knowledge that order has not yet been signed. once it's signed and these planes start moving out. I mean, there was a report yesterday, I haven't confirmed it independently, but that 28 KC135s had left departed Bengurian airport. Now, why why might that be? Well, that that would be a first step. So, um, you would you would take these these aircraft, get them away from Benguri and fly them to say, uh, the air base in in Cyprus or fly them to an air base in Italy, fly them to an air base, you know, Spain, Portugal, France, England because they're they'll they'll they'll refuel or up in Germany and then as these F35s try to fly home, you know, they'll fly they need to they'll fly about 450 mi before they need to be refueled. So, they can fly another 450 mi. Um, and then the question becomes, how many hours is is a pilot going to be allowed to fly before they have to have downtime? you know, they uh since it's not a combat situation, they're not they may, you know, put a pilot pilot on eight hour limit or uh you know uh a 12-hour limit. I'm not I'm not actually sure what that is, but uh so it it'll take a while to start fing these aircraft back to the United States. Well, and they're in the process of moving back to the United States. They're not available for use in combat operations against Iran, which further reduces what Israel could count on or threaten to do. Yeah. Yeah. And uh a lot has been made of greater Israel, Larry, but uh I I see this moment as actually being a big crisis for this dream project of the Lood party and uh the rest of the fanatics inside of Israel who want to see this kind of from uh the Euphrates to wherever you know across the Mediterranean. this idea that they are going to uh uh expand in this way it does not seem like that is doing anything that concept is anywhere but in collapse. Your thoughts? Well, they're the ones insisting from the river to the sea. Yeah. I mean that's and Israel's just projecting they're they don't want the the Palestinians to claim that and uh because that's an that's an Israeli right. Don't you know it says so in the says so in the Torah. It's absolutely absolutely ridiculous. I mean like this is what always gets me. If Israel and the United States, but let's just say Israel right now because Israel is the one vocally uh espousing the greater Israel dream. Uh if they wanted it so badly, why don't they just do it? I mean, they've had to commit genocide in Gaza to what they say they control 70% of Gaza. I don't even know what that means honestly because that to me that means very little if Israel can't actually establish any a lot of colonial situations on you're a student of history Larry when you're a colonizer you have to have administrative control you have to administer an actual colonial government you have to dictate and I don't see that in Gaza I don't see that what does 70% of control mean that you have uh uh troops running around waiting to get inched. I don't I don't understand it, but that's what they say. 52 minutesAnd then Hezbollah, they can't defeat Hezbollah. Uh they're they got their butts kicked in so many battles even just of late. I I don't see this greater Israel dream as being succi is just al-Qaeda. But once that project is uh collapsing, I don't see Syrians saying, "Okay, this is exactly what we want." I feel like it's a lot of borrowed time. But I maybe that's my rosy outlook. What's your uh thoughts on the regional situation when it comes to greater Israel? Yeah. Well, the I the greater Israel project is now dead. Uh it's dying. uh it is not is not sustainable and the uh the growing sort of opposition to it that you know it it's running up against uh the the milit the limit what I call the limits of Israel's military power. 53 minutesUm the um Israel does not have a large standing army. It's a reserve army and uh you know even with the size of reserve army they have they could effectively fight on one front. They can't fight multiple fronts and that's that's exactly what they're trying to do uh to engage both in um Gaza, West Bank, Syria and now Lebanon. And Lebanon in particular is partic part particularly problematic for them because uh Hezbollah despite you know past defense to uh weaken and defeat Hezbollah it's failed and Hezbollah's use of drones has proved out to be a very very effective uh countermeasure to the Israeli attacks. And uh we have one question from the audience uh Larry that I am actually not familiar with this but uh a member of the show as well gave a super chat. 54 minutesThanks so much Tropes. Does Larry know why three giant plumes of smoke have been burning for over three months in the UAE visible from satellites intentional or out of control? Are you any aware of any of this Larry? No I'm not. U my my guess it would be oil fires that they've been unable to put out. That's the only thing I could imagine that would create that kind of plume and and continue to burn. Uh you know the that was one of the other calculations of the UAE that they thought that because of Fujara on the south that they would be able to continue to export oil and they could not suffer what the other Gulf states were. And Iran Iran fixed that pretty quick. They took that out. And so the the UAE is now really hurting for cash flow. Maybe also to uh Uni with this question. What do you know about that giant explosion just a couple of days ago at Ross Leafan? What happened there? And is there is there a you said earlier in the show that it's going to take at least a year, two pl maybe two more or more years for Qatari guests to recover? Does this hurt it even more this uh you know catastrophic explosion? But what's your thought? Well, I again I don't know specifically what blew up and what was damaged. So it would just be speculation, but I you know it's not unreasonable to assume that that's that that was not a viewed as a positive. Um and was it just a an accident? Oh maybe. uh and you could argue that it was an accident was caused because of the structural instability of the system based on previous attacks that that may have helped precipitate and expand make this worse. But it's it is just a reminder that even though if if you get oil oil flowing out of the Persian Gulf, the fact that that the Uataris aren't pumping out LNG and with LNG comes helium. So those are two critical elements that are, you know, the world's going to be short of for for some time. You know, at least I'd say at least six months if not a year. And I'd be remiss not to cover what was absolutely horrific uh last night, the two earthquakes in Venezuela, magnitude of over seven. Now, the reported numbers, these are still early in terms of the impact is devastating and tragic, but under the uh assumptions that were made by the US Geological Survey saying that it would run into tens of thousands, if not a 100,000 plus. right now 188 dead, 1500 injured in uh two seven magnitude earthquakes that occurred within s of each other. Uh the first thought I had is uh one, you know, Venezuela did build up quite impressive infrastructure. If they keep those numbers below the what was assumed, then that means Venezuela has been very resilient under sanctions. But also the level of damage if it if it continues to add up into these catastrophic numbers, the level of uh impact that sanctions do have that are still technically despite the Trump administration and Trump's uh they're best friends of ours. We are so much you know uh have this great relationship now. Those sanctions are not really lifted especially um those uh you know universal sanctions that go beyond oil. your uh your thoughts on Yeah, it hasn't it hasn't really changed anything in terms of you know it hasn't made the world more peaceful more more wealthy you know this ch you know getting rid of Maduro is just taking away uh you know someone that Trump considered to be an obnoxious presence 58 minutesand you know it is it going to expose will the court end up exposing potential corrupt corruption from US actors. Yeah, I think so. Possibly. By the way, I saw one of your one of your commenters was asking, "What kind of cigars do I smoke?" What kind of cigar? Alec Alec Bradley Superstition. It's a cigar made in Honduras. Oh, okay. All right. Very cool. It's a That's a whole other world to me. I've never smoked a cigar, but uh you always look like uh you're victorious uh when you're smoking one on the program. I I wait I waited until I was 35 to develop uh uh the vice. That's all right. That's all right. Well, uh in any event, Larry, any final thoughts on the current situation globally before we head out and I uh do some announcements? Well, the biggest one is what's going to take place in Europe. Uh we're we are headed towards um there there will be the war is currently the war that's currently confined to Ukraine is going to expand beyond the borders. It will involve Europe and uh the you know Germany, UK, France, uh Poland, Romania, they're like they're they're like Latia, Lithuania, they're likely to become engaged in this war and they're going to suffer significant damage. Uh the Russians are the Russians are prepared for this. They've warned them. Uh and those warnings have been ignored. So uh I I think we're going to actually see the expansion of the war in Europe before we see it in uh Iran or the G the Persian Gulf. Yeah. Well, Europe, uh, especially their NATO leader, uh, RTA, they are bragging about being involved in all of the wars and how absolutely loyal they've been, uh, to these, uh, what have been losing causes. So, no surprise there. But, yeah, it is definitely going the war in Ukraine is not over and it's uh, but it's and but it's not going in right favor. That's for sure. Um, which is why they need uh drone theater theatrics and uh optics to to cover up that reality. But we are here, that's why we're here to uh uh uncover and uh lift the veil of this war propaganda. Everybody, thanks so much for joining today. I want to make sure you know, and I don't know. I hope it's I hope it's in there, but I'm going to I'm going to get it in there. Make sure uh that you follow Larry Johnson's blog at sonar21. I am going to put it in there if it isn't in there. Nope, for some reason it wasn't, but now it is. So, in the video description is sonar21.com and oh, transition protocol, right? Also, yeah, also transition protocol. That's Pepe, the Pepe Larry show with hosted by Zulfikar Ali. I feel like he's been in touch with me. I should probably be in touch with him to uh, you know, if he ever wants to coordinate anything. All right. All right. Um, that is also in the video description below. So, do subscribe there. support that show. Hit the like button before you go. Uh that helps boost the show on YouTube's algorithm. And underneath all of Larry's resources are where you can support this show, Patreon, Subsec, and much more. All right, I'll be back tomorrow with our mutual friend Patrick Henningson, same time, 2 pm Eastern time, June 26. See you then. Bye-bye.
EX-CIA & Pepe Escobar EXPOSES: How Did Pakistan’s Hidden Tech Stop Kill Chain in Iran? by Pepe Escobar, Larry Johnson, ZulfiqarAli Transition Protocol Jun 24, 2026 #Iran #Pakistan #China
Pakistan — with China behind the scenes — has emerged as the broker that ended the US–Israel war on Iran, and in this special edition Pepe Escobar and Larry Johnson join ZulfiqarAli to explain what it means for the Strait of Hormuz, the petrodollar, and the new security order taking shape from Islamabad to Riyadh. The guests lay out how Iranian oil is now moving to China settled in yuan through CIPS, why Iran's president made Islamabad his first stop abroad, and what to watch when Pakistan's leadership meets MBS in Riyadh this week.
The conversation also covers the guests' most sensitive claim: that a Pakistani-Chinese technological breakthrough helped Iran halt the assassination campaign against its leadership after the March 17 killing ofAli Larijani. We flag clearly where claims are sourcebased or developing versus publicly confirmed.
Guests: Pepe Escobar (veteran geopolitical correspondent) and Larry Johnson (former CIA/State counterterrorism). Transition Protocol delivers serious, source-drivengeopolitical analysis of the multipolar shift.
Transcript
Pakistan led uh Iran to finally find a way to counteract the artificial intelligence generated killing of their top leadership. I'm sure many of you will draw your own conclusions just based on this sentence. Today is June 24 and we have a special edition of transition protocol uh because we have something very significant to talk about and to talk about the very significant events uh of the last few months that have resulted in s in very significant developments in West Asia. I have my very good friends Dary Johnson and Pepe Escobar. Please if you like what we are doing to support us, kindly subscribe. It goes a long way to make this possible. Now to Larry Johnson. Yeah, this I I I I have to do all this tremendous burden of work having to talk to Pepe. you know, the times the times that Pepe and I have been chasing each other around because we just like to sit down and talk and [laughter] be able to share to share with you what's going on. Uh, you know, if you would have if you would have put asked us two months ago, could you believe that Pakistan would be playing the leading role in brokering an end to the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran? Going, oh, what? Okay, we're going to have to do a drug test now to see what if you have any illegal substances in your body for saying such a thing. But in fact that's what it's turned out to be that uh Pakistan working behind the scenes with the full encouragement and support of China and you know that's it is that entire relationship that I think is not fully understood or appreciated 2 minutesin the west um have have made tremendous inroads not just on the diplomatic front but also on the military front also on the intelligence front you know So, for example, uh it was just reported by CNN yesterday about the the jellyfish drones that the pilot the the the number two guy who was the backseater in the F-15 that was shot down uh in Iran south of Ishvahan about two months ago that he reported seeing uh the these drones that were moving in coordination and and and and played a role, I guess, in downing the aircraft. Well, what country in the world is known for doing that? Oh, that would be called China. Anybody that's ever watched any of their, you know, New Year celebrations? They both the Western New Year and Chinese New Year, they have this incredible display of drones all moving in concert and and operating. Over a thousand drones moving in in sync. Yeah. So, they they've perfected that technology. They brought that to the battlefield. they've brought to the battlefield for Iran uh missiles that have been used against US sensitive US installations destroying those. So, China is playing a role behind the scenes and and the front people for this are uh the government of Pakistan, Prime Minister Sharif, but most important General Munir and those of you listening, you know, we recognize there are issues that some people recognize that Munir and Immad Kh, you know, it is what it is and and so we're not here to meddle into the internal affairs of Pakistan. Pepe and I both believe it's just like with a with a couple that's getting on in a bad marriage. You don't get in the middle of that. You let them sort it out. It's not for us to sort out. We're just reporting what's going on. But what we seeing right now and it 4 minuteswas demonstrated last I thought last Sunday was so important on two fronts. one, the brokering of the meeting between the United States and Iran in which actual progress was made despite the offensive obscene remarks and threats from Donald Trump. But at the same time meeting in Cairo again brought together by the government of Pakistan. this time with the Pakistani foreign minister, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Turkey and and and Saudi Arabia that they are all coming together to recognize this new security architecture that Vladimir Putin talked to uh foreign minister Arachi of of Iran about two months ago and then a week later Arachi's in China in in Beijing talking with Wangi the foreign minister and he says a new security architecture. So clearly this is an extension of what Russia and China have been working behind the scenes. Pakistan turns out to be the frontman for this and they what we're witnessing right now, we can't emphasize this enough. We are witnessing a historic change in the world order. You may not fully appreciate what's taking place, but it is significant and it's happening in front of our eyes. Absolutely, Larry. and uh the connection with what Russia and China were discussing and had been planning for the whole of Eurasia. Now we are watching it happening in real time in this West Asia South Asia connection which is Pakistan as one of one of the key South Asian uh nations providing the possible security umbrella and the new security architecture for most of West Asia at least most of the GCC. The UAE is out of the picture at the moment because from the beginning they bat on the wrong horse. So we have now a h a in sync these four initial Sunni nations which first met in Islamabad. There was right at the beginning before even the possibility of a meeting in Islamabad where we had Galibbaf on one side and Jade defense on the other side. This was the first meeting where we had this quartet. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt. The next day, Pakistan's foreign minister, he boarded a plane to Beijing to explain what happened to Wii and the Chinese, of course, they started coordinating in the background. Okay guys, you have to dig a little deeper. [laughter] That's not enough. And the product of all that was the first Islamabad meeting which as we all know was derailed at the end. But that uh opened the path for the possibility of a next meeting. It would be in in Geneva in the end turned out to be Burgento this past weekend and everything mediated by Pakistan with help from Qatar. They were work working on two different fronts. Pakistan was working on the political military front and Qatar was working on the money front because the famous six billion then 12 billion dollars of Iranian frozen funds they are in Qatari banks. So that's where Katar comes in and of course behind of that the Chinese without saying a word not lifting a finger just watching the river flow observing everything because this was part of their strategic relationship with both Pakistan and Iran. 8 minutesThat's where the new silk roads belt and road initiative comes in. These are two essential partners of the overarching concept of Chinese foreign policy for the 21st century which is let's trade with everybody. This is what the the BRRI is all about. And it's no wonder that for most nations in the world, China is the number one partner. For the 10 nations in Southeast Asia where I spend a lot of time in my life, all of them their number one trade partner is China. China is one of the top trade partners of everybody in Central Asia, one of the key partners of Iran. He has a strategic relationship with Iran as much as he has a strategic relationship with Pakistan. So what Larry just announced correctly as a turn a complete geopolitical turnaround in West Asia. It's included in the big turnaround in Eurasia in a crucial area of Eurasia where until 3 months ago we thought that uh you know that's it the game is set uh the US is going to control this forever. No, not at all. And this is one of the absolute key results of the war which we have to repeat it over and over again. It was a major strategic defeat of the United States because they never had not even a plan B or C. They never had a plan A to start with. And Larry can talk about this for hours. Right. [clears throat] So now we are reaping uh the results and West Asia is reaping these results. So what we saw in Borgenstock and what we're going to see this Thursday or Friday when the prime minister of Pakistan and General Monourir are flying to Riad to meet MBS face to face and to go to the next stage 10 minutesof their military pact which is essentially okay guys now you are you are going to run the security umbrella for West Asia for us Saudi Arabia and for other GCC members that may be interested, Qatar, Q8, UAE, they're going to wake up, but it's going to take a few months. And of course, this is not antagonistic to Iran because this has been already discussed with Iran because Pakistan is the mediator for Iran. uh trustworthy uh the the fact that President Pzashkin earlier this week, his first foreign trip since the start of the war on February 28, it was not to a neutral uh European capital. It was not to Beijing, it was to slamat where uh Mr. Zean tells us how he was received as a hero, as a brother, as one of us. Uh it's not only the gun salutes at the airport, the jets flying overhead, Sharif reception, etc. is the way he was treated and the way he had uh bilaterals and multilateral meetings in Islamabad discussing everything including the very very important angle for uh Pakistan. Finally, one of the big soap operas of what I called years ago pipeline is done, which is an evol it's an evolving soap opera, the Iran Pakistan gas pipeline. [snorts] Finally, we have everything in place for this pipeline to finally be uh concluded and Pakistan needs it. It's a pipelines are usual still umbilical cords between nations. So in terms of of a peace dividend of of of a of a pipeline link nations this is practically [snorts] unbeatable and this is part of so it's not only about u security it's about energy and it's about uh ramifications of the new silk roads in Pakistan where they are part of one of the top new silk road projects the China Pakistan economic corridor but for Iran as well because we have for instance the China Iran railway which was built by the Chinese, paid by the Chinese and it's an overland cor connectivity corridor between Iran and and China via Central Asia. But now Iran can also have Pakistan as a connectivity corridor to China. And what we were discussing about Chabahar a few minutes ago, Larry, one of the most fascinating aspects of what happened this past three months when Guadada, the port in uh um in in Bali in the Arabian Sea in Pakistani Baluchistan, which is only 80 kilometers away from Shabahar, which is in Iran in Sistan Baluchistan. I was there last year when we were shooting our documentary on the international north south transportation corridor and the authorities in the port of Chabahar. They were showing me everything around they said ah you see those uh uh cranes over there. So these were brought by Indians for instance India's very much present they invested over here and then I looked around and I saw two Chinese tankers in the and I asked so but the Chinese are coming here as well. said yes they prefer to go to to Bandar Abbas the big big port in the Persian Gulf but they're also coming here so sooner or later you're we're going to going to have more Chinese cargo landing in Chabahar and even more Chinese investments in Chabahar which in uh for the Iranians they want to turn into a sort of replica of Shenzhen in China it's the same principle free [snorts] port free zone and you we can trade with everybody. So all this after the end I wouldn't say the end let's say after the I think Larry could correct me after the current pause which is the MO right the current pause we never know where this is going to lead but the geoeconomic uh interaction between Iran Pakistan and China is can grow you know infinitely and of course later on on a second and third stage investment by GCC players especially Saudi Arabia for instance inside Iran as well and all of that brokered by Pakistan. So what we are seeing is an interconnection of all these key players from West Asia to South Asia that we could not even imagine three months ago. Right. Right. Yeah. You know, the other the other thing to be uh aware of is, you know, if you if you listen if if you're watching in the West, Fox News, and you're listening to Donald Trump, boy, the he's got everything. He's got 15 minutesthe Iranians uh uh in in a chokeold, that they have no no other option but to uh obey the United States, and that oil is just flowing flowing out of the Persian Gulf. Uh all of that's a lie. Yes. U you know there's so there's uh there are a couple of different uh programs online that you can look at. One's called merit marinaretra.com and you go to marinetra.com and it shows you actually what ships are there, what's moving and where they're going. And what's fascinating is u the the ships there are very very few ships moving into the Persian Gulf. Number one, there are probably 12 ships moving out of the Persian Gulf and they're headed to China, China. Singap Singapore. Exactly. And and India. Yeah. So, it's Asia. Now, the rest of the Southeast Asian countries are still hurting very, very badly. Now, so that's number one. Trump claims that 19 million barrels of oil have flowed out. He's trying. Trump has an oil problem and that oil problem can be defined as a as a choice between making diesel fuel and making aviation fuel. the uh heavy crude that comes out of the Persian Gulf that the the disruption of that 20% of the world's supply has had a dramatic effect across the globe in reducing the amount of fuel available to make diesel and aviation fuel. Now if we go back beforeh February 28th uh before the start of the Ramadan war at that point you would say we had a level of demand for diesel around the world and we had B level of demand for aviation fuel. When the refineries get a barrel of oil they don't sit there and say okay we're going to make uh 60% uh diesel and 40% aviation. No they have to make a choice. They make either diesel or they make aviation. It's not it's not both together. So the they they try to to meet with those demands and keep that steady. When the war happened all of a sudden it it dramatically spiked the need for aviation fuel and the intense use of that fuel over the ensuing 40 45 day actually you know for it really went on for about four months that that that jumped the demand. And meanwhile in the west, particularly in the United States, they started draining their strategic petroleum reserves. Uh I've been told by an energy expert that I respect that the United States has two weeks of supply left. And at that point, the United States is consumers are going to be hit with a choice between either there's going to be less diesel available the for big trucks to drive and deliver food to grocery stores or there's going to be less aviation fuel for civil airliners that it's not that there is not enough oil on the high seas right now. Exactly. they can be can be delivered to refineries and then refined in a in a sufficient time to produce the needed either diesel or aviation fuel. So that this is this is one of those dramatic things that's behind the scenes that Donald Trump has no control over. And even if they were even if there were all of these uh ships going into flooding into the Persian Gulf, it's not going to change a thing. The other thing to remember is that there is a there's a obstacle. The all those ships that have been sitting idle for four months, they're no longer ready to just be filled up with oil and sell out. They've going to require some maintenance and some attention uh to detail uh to get get them get them ready to go again. And then on top of that, one of the reasons you don't see a lot of ships flowing in there, the insurance question. As long as there is the threat of mines and the US Department of War said it's going to take up to six months to remove those mines, the insurance companies like Lloyds of London aren't going to ensure ships to to travel through those waters. So, this is one of those background dynamics where Iran is actually still uh in control of the situation. Mr. Uh I would like u at this point this is a good juncture for either of you maybe Pepe you should be the one doing that uh provide a context to how Iran ended up becoming a net security provider to Iran at the outside of the war when Iran was being hit day and tonight. Well, uh it's uh we have come across with an extremely sensitive piece of information which prevents us from uh giving you all the technological details of uh what's really going on. So we're going to use a Chinese way of announcing it which is we can use metaphors, we can use images, figures of speech or dissimulation or being quite cryptic but essentially Pakistan led uh Iran to finally find a way to counteract the artificial intelligence generation. ated killing of their top leadership. 21 minutesI'm sure many of you will draw your own conclusions just based on this sentence and the repercussions are immense. Yes, this is linked to Chinese technological breakthroughs. Yes, this is linked to Pakistani technological breakthroughs that something that they have for the at least for the past two years in a technological center based in Islamabad. And this was transferred to the Iranian leadership immediately after the assassination of Ali Larijani which at the time Lijani at the time he was the secretary general of the supreme national security council of Iran but he was the top de facto authority in Iran at the time apart from uh leader Moshaba Kame who was still recovering from the serious wounds that he received on February 28th. So one thing that you can see and you can look at the record and you can confront that everywhere immediately after the assassination of Ali uh Ali Ladijani the targeted assassinations against the Iranian leadership simply vanished and that's the definitive proof that the technological sub warfare that Islamabad transferred to Thran is immensely ly effective and generated of course an enormous extra problem not only for Israel but also for the US. So of course you can fill in the blanks on all the names, all the companies, all the AI intelligence involved. But this is as far as uh I would say that at the moment we have to be very um careful with this immensely explosive uh piece of information. But this was confirmed directly and explains to all of you everywhere why President Pzashkin was received with so much grace and as literally a brother in Islamabad earlier this week and why the Iranian leadership chose in their first trip abroad to go to Islamabad and not anywhere else including So this is a big big big statement and all that is interconnected. It's a degree of trust between Islamabad and Thran which once again and I think Mr. Z and Larry would agree we could not even imagine three months ago. Right. Right. Well in fact there's a [clears throat] it I respect the work that Jeremy Scill does at Drop Site News. They do a lot of good work, but they did come out and report in the LA, you know, a few days ago that it is actually Qatar that is running running the show that Qatar is the one in the lead and and that that's just absolutely not true. Totally nonsense. Yeah. uh Qatar is Qatar is actually I'll say favorably disposed towards Iran uh in terms of it was Iran they came to their aid back in 2017 when the Saudis and the Amiradis were both trying to isolate and and and attack uh the cut Qataris. Uh so the uh the Israelis actually were you know found themselves up against the fact that Iran was backing Qatar. The Qatar was not isolated as it had been pre presented. Um but Qatar is playing a role in conjunction in let's call it in collaboration with or as a junior partner to Pakistan in this effort because on on Sunday when you know Donald Trump was insisting that the Pakistan that that uh Iran would not get a single dime despite the fact that they were supposed to have frozen assets unfrozen that they that Iran would have to buy US products and that was you know the United States was going to control every dime. Uh the Saudis and then the uh Qataris both agreed that the 12 that they would basically front the 12 billion dollars that the that Qatar would not that the Iranians would not have to wait for the United States go begging for for the US to give them what is in fact their own money. Their own money. Yeah. It's their own money. They're not they're not asking for a handout. They just want they want their own money back. You know, give it back. You stole it. And and so uh this is uh you know cuter played an important role in that. It was interesting the other day too. We all saw the video where the Qatari foreign minister when he was in warmly greeted by Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan also warmly greeted by General Munir and ignored JDNG [laughter] but but later a very sheepish uh foreign minister of Qatar was saying oh no no no that wasn't intentional that was just oh no we we'd had warm talks you know, [laughter] they're they're they're trying to put some lipstick on that peg, but the fact of the fact of the matter was, you know, it it was a way to send a message and not too subtle, I might add, but uh I think it was effectively communicated so that the United States knows that the the day the era of threatening and bullying these Gulf States is over. Mr. Uh I cannot overemphasize what has come out of your mouths. I cannot overemphasize. You have done a marvelous job of explaining and people can fill in the blanks. Those blanks are left intentionally blank so that you can provide your own fill into it. Uh I will say one thing which might be just contextual. Please understand that prior to this war, Iran and Pakistan were not really good friends. There was a lot of terrorist activity on the border and Pakistan had made many complaints to Iran and Iran had not taken the appropriate action. According to Pakistan, we all saw what happened when the war erupted. All of the world saw it. Decapitation, which the Israelis like to do all the time and are proud of it. They think this is their number one great technical skill. Kill everybody. And that happened. [snorts] And then Ali Laurani got killed in the house of his daughter on while he was breaking fast. his son got killed. His chief of staff got killed. Pakistan made an offer to Iran to help with this matter because Pakistan has a in Islamabad developed by the highest levels of Chinese assistance uh a center of technology assist technology as excellence. They developed their own technology and they said we are happy to help. Please let us help you. And the world has changed after that. Not one single Iranian leader has been killed since that happened. Not one. And the people who have the ability to make connections can make their own connection as to why that happened and why Iran embraced Pakistan ever so tightly after that. [snorts] So I will let you do the final call. Uh Pepe, you are the world trotter. No, no, come on. Not final call. Um okay, very very important. uh pay attention to what's going to happen in Riyad Thursday and Friday with the Pakistani official visit to NBS and pay attention to NBS decisions. So depending on what emerges from this visit then we this boat in fact this super fast boat of the new uh security architecture in West Asia will be sailing smoothly from Alno. I will make one uh additional comment if you allow me. Yes. because I've spent my entire life dealing with the post Breton Woods architecture. My entire life has has has been spent in that uh arena and I know quite a bit about it. the petro dollar. I saw it firsthand being set up by Bill Simon, Treasury Secretary and Kissinger, who contrary to everything that he said, asking Fisel to raise the price of oil. Raise the price of oil, not bring it down. The realm of the petro dollar is coming to an end. Let us announce it loudly and clearly on this channel. The petro dollar ram is coming to an end. Five years from today, it will be at least half of what it is today. And 10 years from today, it will be gone. And then people who have some wisdom can figure out how the US is going to finance it 40 mill trillion dollars of debt. Yeah. And well, in fact, let me let me give a challenge out there. If you're for those of you watching or listening, yeah, take your favorite AI engine, whether it's Chat GPT or Gro or Claude, and you're going to ask ask them an economic question relative to the uh the Middle East and oil and that situation with OPEC is is an example. And what you'll find is this builtin bias, this assumption in those engines that the petro dollar is solid, that it is invulnerable to any kind of outside influence and that it is a firm reality and then go back and start pointing out the anomalies where that that is absolutely not true anymore. And well, there's nothing more, you know, entertaining than to get uh the so-called artificial intelligence having to admit that it's not so intelligent. [laughter] It all depends, it all depends on the intelligent man who wrote [laughter] the code, which may not be so intelligent. Yeah. Well, uh this I mean this is a real significant earthshaking tectonic shift taking place right now. Yes. No, absolutely. That and that's why we can't emphasize it enough that uh what we're what we're we are we are witnessing history being made in the same way that in the aftermath immediate aftermath of World War II and the Brett and Woods conference that took place up in New Hampshire and the decisions being made for creating what was then a new global economic infrastructure. And then in 1972, a quick revision going from the gold standard to the petrod dollar. Uh, and that petrod dollar era, it's lasted 53 years. But now we're on the cusp of something brand new. This war that the United States unleashed on on Iran. Ironically, just as the uh the the West provoking Russia into the special military operation in 2022 has set in motion and accelerated the development of of of new architecture, new systems uh that that are in place to facilitate global trade. Uh so like right now the bulk of the oil that's flowing out of the Persian Gulf is Iranian oil and it's going to primarily China and Iran's not paying for the the it's not a matter of buying dollars to purchase or sell that oil. It's happening with Chinese yuan. It's happening through the Chinese system called SIPs, the cross interbank payment system and it is completely outside the control of the United States. And this is one of the direct consequences of the war, Larry. This was a war among other things to protect the petro dollar and ended up accelerating the future of the petro. Yeah, it's one of those wonderful historical irons in front of us. That's the difference. Yeah, it reminds me the end of that movie, The Hunt. You I always do movie references, but The Hunt for Red October where you had the the Russian the the Soviet sub chasing the Sean Conry sub and yes and and he fires they said, "Okay, we got to put the torpedo so they don't have any delay. Just put it on." and they fired the torpedo and the torpedo ended up coming back and killing themselves. That is that's that's the met that's the metaphor for what's happening to the west. That's the metaphor for what we're watching now. Absolutely. Yes. And and I want to make a plug for our show if you don't mind. Yes. We we set this up primarily to provide very very high quality information that is sourced impeccably and delivered to you by people who have 30 40 years of your trust namely Pepe Escobar and Larry Johnson and Vijay Prasad on Thursday. Fad Lama who is a Lebanese who's been doing this all his life and maybe there will be one or two others. The entire purpose of this podcast, this show is to provide you information that you will not get any place in the world. Not on BBC, not on CNN, not in New York Times, but it is impeccably sourced and delivered to you without varnish. So kindly subscribe, kindly like it and share it so that we can continue doing this. Yep. This will be must mustwatch mustwatch television every week. Thanks so much, man. [laughter] Yes, we we are scheduled to have Larry on Monday. Every Monday at uh What time is it, Larry? Well, you and I, we do it at two, but it's recorded and it's put out by uh, you know, four 4 pm Eastern, which you know, hey, this is we're going global with this. So, you'll get to watch it at some point in your time zone. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It is going global with 10 languages within a week or so. And Pepe Escobar is on every Tuesday. Every Tuesday around uh Paris time 9 p.m. 900 p p.m. Europe, Central Europe. and and on Wednesday the three of us. Yes. And we will keep doing this as long as we have something very significant that we believe you must know. Right. Thanks. So thank you very much. Thank you very much for watching. We will we will see you again all of us next week and and tomorrow you can see Vijay Prasad who has his own perspective because he's a glo globe troter also. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Iran LEVELS Oil Tanker in Hormuz, Trump in SHOCK | Patrick Henningsen Danny Haiphong Streamed live 5 hours ago #iran #straitofhormuz #iranwar
Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century joins the show to discuss escalation in the Strait of Hormuz as Iranian drones surprise Trump and burst asunder the myth that the US is in control.
Transcript
This is Danny Hayifong and these are the latest developments that have occurred over the last . A Singaporean flag vessel in the straight of Hormuz was struck by an Iranian drone in the last on June 25th. Uh Wall Street Journal reports that this puts the US Iranou on very shaky grounds and Donald Trump himself had an incredibly tepid answer for this saying that this is obviously a violation of the ceasefire. As you can see here, Donald Trump also mentioned that there were more than one drone that attacked ships in the straight of Hormuz in the last . Al Jazer confirms that Iran, after warning these vessels, three of them, uh, that they needed to turn around, did indeed fire one-way drones at their way. Also, uh, occurring now, the Wall Street Journal reports that the United States is about to change its force posture in the Middle East. Uh this comes as Bahrain's fifth fleet, the US naval fifth fleet has about $400 million worth of damage. Saudi bases, Qatar uh Kuwaiti bases, all may be closed and some institutions, military installations will go underground. To discuss all of this and more, I have with me Patrick Hennington of 21st Century Wire. Patrick, thanks so much for joining me again. It's always great to have you here. Great to be with you, Danny. Yeah, everyone hit the like button. That helps boost the show. So, how about we get into that first story, Patrick? Your reaction to this story that Iranian drones were firing at ships in the straight of Hormuz. Again, this comes after we covered yesterday that the IRGC has been warning vessels. They need to take the prescribed route that Iran has drawn and some of them are not doing so. What's going on here? And how significant is this? Is theou on as shaky ground as a lot of people, even the American people in polls are uh uh assuming? Yeah, I'm not sure if this is um hugely consequential. I mean, it could lead to, you know, maybe some diplomatic spat or I hate to use the word diplomacy, but some political spat between the two countries. But at at the end of the day, what it does is it reinforces the reality that Iran uh has operational control over the strait of Hormuse. So like it or not and uh you know these types of incidents could uh happen uh and certainly there's a strict protocol there uh we are still you know the US the US is still at war with Iran. There's been no peace treaty. So in terms of heightened security that's just a reality. So yeah we'll see. I I I I don't think it's that big of a incident myself. Um but it does again indicate that uh and remind everybody uh who's in charge of of the strait. So um could could have been a bigger international incident had it been from another country, a Singaporean flagged uh vessel. Singapore is not, you know, they're not insignificant, but they're not China and they're not India. And so we'll we'll see how that develops. Um the other part that's more interesting though is what you mentioned Danny about the US uh standing forces agreement um in the Persian Gulf. That's uh that that that really reflects I think the the will of the Gulf States as much as anything. Um certainly the US is exposed. The interesting thing is the underground bases uh uh a talking point there. That means that you can kind of admit that warfare is changing basically. So I would imagine the United States would be um perhaps investing in missiles and and drones to be deployed from such facilities. But again that's going to be subject to I think approval. That's the all this is going to be part of the negotiations with Iran and the Gulf States just going forward. So, you know, the US is announcing I think for the US domestic audience, you're in America, so you'd know better than me um at this particular moment, but I think the US domestic audience, I don't know if they are they quite I don't know if they've quite it's landed that they don't have the presence in the in the region in the Middle East that they once had, like they physically will never regain it. Uh that's my belief, but I don't know if that idea has fully landed yet in America. So when we see announcements from the Pentagon or from the this government, I would assume the domestic audience is an important part of that, how how that plays with the domestic audience. I I see so many problems with any US military facility uh in the region. Um yeah, but so what does that mean? That means that the United States will be putting a lot more into covert actions and covert operations. Uh Syria being a perfect 5 minutesexample of that. Uh when Trump telegraphed that Galani might do a better job fighting Hezbollah, that wasn't just an insult or a slight to the Israelis. That's Trump telegraphing an operation. He has he's always had a problem keeping his mouth shut, even though he is always boasts about being the guy that nobody knows what he's about to do, Mr. Surprise, and keeping his enemies off balance and and his allies off balance and his own government off balance, you know, and the world. So, uh, is is Syria going to be a new dirty war? Is is the US going to reignite and and, uh, mobilize its, uh, the Israelis and the Americans mobilize their assets um in al-Qaeda, ISIS assets in Syria to unleash a violent civil war on Lebanon. These are legitimate questions at this point. Yeah, they are. And the uh interesting part about this I think about all these developments is that the Wall Street Journal is getting out ahead of Washington uh even on the uh escalations in the straight of hormuz. It's a Wall Street Journal that are reporting them first. It took actually it took more than a day for Donald Trump just to react to uh what happened to that Singaporean vessel. But even this what you were talking about this um report by the Wall Street Journal. This is what they published, a satellite image of the US naval fifth fleet uh in Bahrain. Uh this uh there has been no word from Sentcom or the Pentagon about what they're actually going to do. It's all the Wall Street Journal publishing that indeed these damage are so dam these bases are so damaged that it's going to cost so much money that they might even have to consider going underground with some installations to protect whatever they're going to keep there and then coming up with really uh what I would call strange ideas maybe desperate ideas of uh maybe some single runways that you you know they try during that commando raid uh so they're so that's a little less predictable what they're where their installations are going to be. But uh nonetheless, all of this points to a big pondering about whether the United States military will have a big presence in the Middle East at all. Yeah. And it's not just the military aspect of it. It's the political side of it as well. You know, that all of this war and the conflict over the last three months has raised some fundamental questions. The most obvious is why why are the US in the region? Why do they need to maintain a position in the region? They had an excuse before. They had a rationale uh before. Um it was to provide a security umbrella for their Gulf allies. At least that that's what the official line was for the longest time. And of course, we know that that would be to protect the uh the the integrity of the petro dollar uh and also the predictability of of world energy markets and so forth. But what they told the Gulf states, the political pitch for the US position in the region was always that they needed protection from the Iranian threat. That's that was always the political pitch. And then for Israel, it's we now know the the broader agenda is to provide a security umbrella really for Israel, not the Gulf because we saw what happened to the Gulf States in the first uh hours of this war with Iran. It began on February 28th. the US just painted a massive target on all of them and as you as you've shown here on screen just now and the other locations Kuwait thoroughly trashed uh as well as Bahrain damage to Saudi Arabia UAE uh and so forth. So uh I'll throw Jordan in there as well although it's not a a Gulf oil shikum u but it is a sort of protectorate uh nonetheless. So that why are the US there? They they they have to I think that this question has to be revised because if it's to keep an eye on Iran, you know, why you know what are they going to do? They've already they've already gone toe-to-toe with the Iranians. They've already keep an eye make sure they are not developing a nuclear weapon. They don't need to have bases in the Persian Gulf for that. So, uh these questions are going to have to get answered in in the US politically. And I think they're having a hard time. They're having a hard time. the Iran's not afraid of the United States. That's clear. So the deterrence is no longer effective. So it it would have to be not just before it was just the US presence that provided the deterrence. The threat that the US might get involved that provide the insurance. Now the presence has to be technical. It has to have a function. And if if it's if it's going to be a cases belly or create put a target on the the Gulf States, then that's not you know what's the utility in that for the host country really. So this is a question if it's and it can't be just for Israel because that that card's already been played and that hand is a bust at the moment. So, you know, I I I if if they just need to be there for covert, you know, to provide support for covert action, that's makes sense from a military CIA point of view. But what the hell are you doing in the region with covert actions? Yeah, no one asked those questions before. Now, those are all on the table for discussion because there nobody's under any illusion now. They've already done the subtifuge, the regime change, the the mobs, the armed the mobs in Iran. and they've done all that assassinating leaders. So, you know, the agenda is pretty clear. I don't think the Iranians are really going to have a lot of patience for some of this uh even if it's incrementalism on the part of the US. So, we'll see. It's again, this all going to be part of ongoing political negotiations and positioning between Iran and the Gulf allies. Why do you believe Donald Trump uh you know for a lot less sometimes without even uh without anything happening Donald Trump comes out with very strong threats against Iran um oftentimes not backed up sometimes uh there are retaliation there has been retaliation but of course not since theou was agreed upon but all he had to say about this latest incident in the straight of hormones was obviously this is a foolish violation of our ceasefire agreement. Nothing else, no other words. And it took a while just to even react to this, let alone the reports about the military, the damage to the US military in the region, which he still claims in stark denial that uh no, it's not the US that's been damaged. It's only been Iran. Iran has been knocked out. Uh all they want to do is give us everything. What have you made of this dynamic? It's a change in tone because it's all about now how the US has won. They're giving us every Iran has given us everything and uh everything's going very very very well. Well, that's that's that's how it has to be uh communicated to the American public and um and to to the Europeans as well. Uh but I think people in the region know better. They know what the the real situation is. So he's not, you know, these these ridiculous tweets that I mean, beside the fact that the president of the United States is doing foreign policy on a website that he owns is in itself is just so strange and bizarre and shouldn't be take taken seriously. I'm going to say this is not a serious administration and it's very inconsistent and erratic. Trump's communications, as you rightly point out, very erratic all over the place. his position will flip from like you know even between breakfast and dinner uh there'll be a complete 180. So it's not it's not serious and it's not anything you can base um any real relations on. Uh it's not anything that's going to engender any trust um in the United States. A lot of people are just hanging back think just bracing themselves for what the US might do next um in terms of you know aggression uh some sort of attack sanctions or some other sort of you know belligerent move by by the US that's not really a good I think formula for uh being a constructive actor in the region. I'm going to go so far as to say I mean I'm I you probably will gather I'm hugely skeptical of this um peace process. Um I think I think it's doomed it's it's potentially doomed to fail ultimately uh because of a number of reasons. One of which is that uh the Israel factor it just provides a type of um structural flaw in everything that gives a potential for failure almost at every single juncture. Now things are stable a couple of days uh you know relatively speaking issued a a nonoffensive shooting order from the Israelis reportedly imposed by the US. But, you know, that might hold for like or I don't think it's actually held quite frankly based on the reports that we've seen. But, you know, for the most part, maybe a week, but who knows? There could be anything. And what whatever breaks it is going to be strategic on the part of the Israelis as well. So, this is why it it's really hard to put a whole lot of currency and expectations in um this peace process being successful. the Trump's uh team and his his record is horrible. You know, really bad. So, uh we're we're meant to keep our hopes up. You know, the good a really successful propaganda is always based on something that people desire to happen. They really are desperate to see happen and that is always the most effective propaganda. So, in a way, the administration can use this um to really push very potent propaganda because people are exasperated. People are desperate. They're fed up and they're tired of uh the US and Israel and what they've done. And so, they they can really kind of I don't know, get people on board with this process thinking that this is great. We're making progress. Um but a lot of it is pro, as we've seen already, is propaganda. A lot of the statements made by JD Vance, by Donald Trump at the government, completely false, completely fake. And it just shows you that they're not serious about negotiations. They're not serious about diplomacy. Maybe they'll get serious a bit and maybe for a while, but I don't see the deep commitment. What I do suspect is that they're going to hedge their position with covert actions. That's that that that's my best guess. That's my educated guess. You never trust the United States. They're not honest. They're not a uh pe government of their word, especially this administration. You know, they're very underhanded. Look at what they've done already. So, they don't negotiate in good faith. That's clear. We have proof and receipts for that. Um so, I I hope the Iranians are aware of this and um vigilant about this this this potential here. Um I I I've always said in the last couple of weeks especially that this is a real stalemate. This is a deadlock for Israel. You know they I Iran imposing itself in this process and making Lebanon at the top of the list of priorities. This has created a real uh stalemate for the Israelis. The only thing that can break that there's only to me only two two maybe three scenarios that could break that. One is a targeted assassination that could cause a chain of events. The other is so a targeted assassination, a false flag attack um is is another one uh that would again cause a chain of events that would cascade into something uh whereby uh it would cause quite a lot of chaos and and normal diplomacy negotiations wouldn't be able to it it wouldn't have enough bandwidth to deal with it. Third thing is uh in a third a third party actor uh being being thrust into the scene in order to uh create uh chaos and instability um in Israel would take their cues at that point um to to to to consolidate the where their positions. So basically using a proxy to attack Hezbollah is a is an example. That one looks like it's more than just plausible. it it's it's now drifting into the uh realm of probability. Uh at this point I think just they're so desperate. Is this just unacceptable for the Israelis internally um the United States have a hard time managing Israel and all the pro-Israel surrogates and all the various operatives in Trump's own administration as well as in the media and in politics in America. So the the these are these three scenarios I think in this case are likely and you know if history is any guide this is exactly how Israel I think managed the uh the the the Lebanese civil war back in the uh 19 uh 80s. So the same type of uh kind of I don't know state craft sorcery was applied back then uh to create false pretext for invasions uh and all sorts of other things. So I I I would I would assume and that was the same. It was a it was a it was a deadlock before in Lebanon in the 80s. Same similar situation now. Slightly different characteristics. But I I would bet on Israel using the same methods in order to break that stalemate and move things in their direction and gain momentum and at the expense of the Lebanese. Absolutely. There's nothing the Americans and the Israelis would like more than to see a bloody violent civil war in Lebanon. this is what they stay stay up at night hoping and wishing and they'll do they've already done everything possible to this point to try to make that happen politically but now are they going to apply force to make that happen by introducing a third party uh into the mix uh that remains to be seen yeah the question of Lebanon is very much unresolved now there are these reports supposedly that there's some uh renewed ceasefire arrange ment I I feel like this term is beginning to lose all meaning and I think it loses even more meaning when we hear Donald Trump you know this isn't us being so-called uh you know Trump derangement syndrome anything like this as you said this is the record so I believe it's actually worrisome whenever we hear someone as uh addicted to deception as Donald Trump is talk about how everything is going well and Iran wants to give everything to them and there's nothing going on here is here's his mood lately. Navyund they had 159 ships within one and a half weeks they were all at the bottom of the sea and then I have to listen to the fake news. Oh, they're much better today than they were. These people are crazy. They want to make a deal with us very badly. And uh we probably will. I think we will. But the straight is open. Uh yesterday they took out 19 million barrels of oil. That's the most in the history of the straight. And the oil prices are dropping like a rock. And you know, you know what's interesting though? Uh not only is there about a fourth about uh activity, a fourth of the activity of before the war occurring in the straight of Formus. Lots and lots of ships still stranded there. But the gas prices are not going down in conjunction with the oil prices going down. Actually, I can just, you know, walk down the block and see that uh the reduction in gas prices 21 minutesabout 20, 30, 40 cents maybe. But the drop in gas prices are down into the high uh the oil prices into the high 60s early 70s. Even the Trump administration is getting a little angry at this. The oil companies are saying tough. But your uh your thoughts about this uh this kind of mood? I feel like when a mood when there is this kind of mood going on, it it just like anything else, this is this feels like a pause in an attempt to uh build up a different kind of approach to to this war. Uh knowing that as you we've talked about on the show, midterms are coming up and the political fallout has been really bad. Yeah. Um what what in the world did he say? 18 billion barrels. Yeah, I think he said 19 actually. 19 billion barrels of oil. Do you realize what the what's the global production in a year? 22 minutesWhat the hell is he talking about? You know, uh, per day before the war, what was it? 20 bill 20 million barrels before the war per day. That's full capacity. 20 million barrels of oil before the war. How where did he get 18 billion? I mean, it's it's I'm I'm not being nitpicky, but it's it's things like that that the president of the United States, it just doesn't endear any confidence and it makes one question whether he understands what he's talking about. Um maybe he meant million. I don't know. Yeah, I think he said million, but uh even so, it's Yeah, the activity is far exaggerated. Yeah, it it's probably exaggerated what he's saying as well. even if he meant million uh I'm sure so um yeah the the the the the energy shocks priced into the market already. So um he's trying to sell this like uh this is somehow a quick fix and he's taking credit for it and it's going to be uh uh everything's going to be great. Gas prices are going to fall. No, it's that it's a huge disruption in the global supply chain. So, um, not not not to mention all the inflationary pressures that are going to come with that as well. Um, not to mention the stock market crash that's coming from the overvaluation of the AI stocks. This is a perfect storm. Uh, and there's really nothing this president can do to make it right. And he's actually responsible for all of it. For all of it. So, he's going to have to own it at some point. My my my fear Danny would be if uh he doesn't want to own it because people like this don't like to take responsibility for anything. Uh so he will look for an excuse to blame it on somebody and who knows maybe even feel compelled to attack somebody um after he's blamed them for uh the failure of this uh this deal which is not going to fail because of anything Iran's doing. It's going to fail most likely because of something the US or Israel has done. Uh, so I don't think we're out of the woods yet. Uh, because it when you see this this that's the problem. This erratic talk, it's e Trump either is setting it up, he's setting up the board for some future move, uh, underhanded move at some times. Um, uh, but it's definitely not stable talk. It's not reliable sort of discourse to that indicates anything stable from from the US and and committed and consistent. No, it's not. That's the problem. I always worry about the adviserss because normally a president would have good adviserss that would prevent him from making a fool out of himself or creating more problems by things that he says. Uh clearly that's not the case with this president doesn't have any such adviserss. So, if he doesn't have any adviserss that want to keep him out of trouble, um, who is his top adviser? Is it himself? Is he his top adviser? Because that's pretty frightening. Just a legitimate question. And certainly, I hope it's not his top adviser is Jared Kushner, his son-in-law. That's uh that's not great either. So, and know I don't know. It's uh I I I think I think the talks I I think this process personally is going nowhere. Um, I think it will net some hopefully some positive steps in the interim that might create conditions for possible future framework. I hope so. Um, unsanctioning of oil and restraining Israel even temporarily. I think these are all positive things. We're all everyone's very happy about these things. But long term, can can they stick to it? Can they make it happen long term? Can they remain consistent? We're not sure. It's not convinced. Yeah. I mean there's a lot of as this process uh goes from days to weeks uh into months now I noticed that there is a lot more um concern arising about whether you know uh this ceasefire thisou is a good deal for Iran. Of course, uh we've covered on this show the the terms are indeed uh very much favorable to Iran. Uh but at the same time, there are those who are concerned about you know uh the I think the uh perhaps the giving up of leverage over time. The longer that this goes on, the more that things ease in the straight of horm. Uh there have been some uh people also who have been not happy about the uh possibilities of a long-term conversation with the United States about Lebanon, about even Gaza uh uh taking place when uh you know the United States, as you said, can't be trusted to fulfill any of its terms. I'm curious on what you believe uh this all means for Iran and for the world right now that uh we have this uh seemingly cracking so-called ceasefire thisou which uh you know uh the longer this goes on the 60 days will come up very soon and uh uh you know it's doesn't look promising that somehow all of these terms all of these issues in thisou will be resolved. Then if you think the US is honest and doing this in good faith and not just buying time to restock and resupply the munitions and that of their ally Israel, um interceptors, uh JDM bombs, uh restocking basically for you know potentially another round of hostilities. I think that would be naive to assume that's not the case. I I would absolutely assume that's the case. Uh certainly from an Israeli point of view, that's absolutely a requirement. Absolutely requirement. They're not planning for peace. Um Israel. So if Israel is not planning for peace, the United States still supports them, still supplies them, still helps man manage their whole defense array, and they're right there side by side with them. So that's uh that's going to happen. And so the buildup, there's a buildup happening now and a reconfiguration of uh forces and capabilities in the region. It's happening now. So the US and and when the time when they're stronger, they'll be in a position to um perhaps be more a little bit more aggressive. They're not right now. uh they're in a very I think uh weak position uh the US and Israel in in terms of especially compared to where they were before and strategically you know Israel has its its uh objectives but the US has no strategy anymore they've got nothing they have no strategy just uh playing spoiler I guess uh that's the role in the region I don't see any real clear strategy the strategy was to make sure Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon this is kind of a bogus uh claim uh as well. They're doing nuclear talks now. Uh and I think Iran can just go through the motions and keep the US busy uh with this for for a while. Uh in fact, so and you know, it's almost like you're really getting tired of Trump boasting about how many ships he's sunk, how many Iranian planes he he's destroyed, whatever. um you know what what what's the basis for the US uh attacking Iran uh taking out their navy? Did the Iranian Navy ever fire on in the US? No, they didn't. Did the US sink any Iranian ships uh on armed ships? Yes, they did. Did they kill Iranian sailors? Yeah. So, if anyone has a motivation to uh attack the US uh naval assets in the region, it's Iran. and there they would be within their right to do that under the laws of war. Uh but that's always a a problem is so if it's just about bragging how much uh of the other side's things that you destroyed or wrecked uh this is is a bad look for the US Americans kind of writing it off at the moment but I think internationally it's a very very bad look for the US. Again, I I I would advise somebody who's advising the president to sort of tell him to put a sock in it because he's doing so much damage to to himself, to the office, to to to the US and their reputation uh on the international uh stage. Um so I'm again worried that there's no such person that can restrain him. I I I I'm really reticent and not 100% believing. There's a lot of pundits on podcasts and things like that and they'll say things like, "Trump really doesn't want to go to war with Iran. He's never wanted to go to war with Iran." And I really believe in my heart of hearts that Trump really doesn't want this war. He was pushed into it by the Israelis. It doesn't make a difference at this point what he wanted or didn't want five years ago or two years ago. The fact is he did it. Yeah, he did [clears throat] it and it committed the US to it. He doesn't know why necessarily why he did it. He doesn't know why it's wrong. He might so to have an idea now he's heard enough press and listened to enough people that he might know why it's bad. But in terms of him being inherently anti-war or inherently virtuous, I don't believe it for a second. I I don't believe I I I think for him he's a moral relativist and his morals and ethics are just relative to the situation in a transactional sense. So I I I I I hear this a lot. And why is that important? Because people always trying to track the motivation and the psychology of this president and uh and saying that he's got this dove side. I'm I I'm sorry. I I I see no indication of this at all. I think the only thing that the reason they have stopped is because they've been restrained. Simple. Either restrained from their inability to keep fighting or restrained by the Iranians and restrained by their Gulf allies quite frankly. Yeah. So, and domestically some members of the US uh political, you know, Congress or Senate, certain members um and the the crowd that they command, including Tucker Carlson, Thomas Massie, and others, Candace Owens, and these sort of right-wing conservatives, conservative pundits, and the fact that Tucker announced he's leaving the Republican party, that's a huge warning shot ahead of the midterms uh for for for Trump. So, but yeah, I'm not convinced, Danny, that there's this kind of crypto anti-war kind of virtuous Trump hiding behind the mask, you know, following the instructions of his better angels. I just don't see it. I haven't seen it from the beginning. So, um that that's why I'm again not uh I'm not um I'm very skeptical of anything that he does that looks or sounds like it's mildly positive or or resembling common sense because I know it it might not it might not actually be authentic. it might not be, you know, a deep-seated value or uh a part of his integral part of his, you know, his his leadership. Uh yeah, I mean I would I would highly caution on so many things. First of all, anyone who is involved and is part of the Epstein class as some people are talking, I think we should caution anyone into looking too deeply into what kind of value system these people hold that uh has anything to do with uh restraining themselves on on violence, war, uh you know, any kind of exploitation. I would I'd be highly doubtful on that. And also even the relationship with Israel be highly doubtful. We've we've been through this rodeo before. Oh my god, look at all the conflict, the phone calls, all of this. And then we see in the medium-term, the medium long term, the the the collaboration remains very ironclad. I would not put much stock in this beyond the need for a pause. Maybe I could see a little bit of disagreements of okay, US wanting a pause and Israel being like, no, no, no pause. Beyond that, I just don't see any why why there would be any disagreement. Then just to pile on the uh morals and the motivations, why we shouldn't be looking too deeply into motivations. I mean, this is this is someone Patrick that continues to deny the one of the worst war crimes in the 21st century, maybe the worst single war crime in the 21st century. Uh the bombing of the Manab school that was obviously conducted by US by US Tomahawk missiles uh killing over 168 children. This is his response to any question about it. Uh continued denial and absolute no no care no care about not even a care about the US's image for denying such a thing which when everyone knows in the world it was the US who did it. Can I ask you look you have to you have to say he's courageous. He's got great equipment but he's got Can I ask you one other question? Have you seen the report into the Minab school attack? Sir, can you tell us? I have not seen it. No. Why not? point. Well, I have to wait for it to be complete. I don't know that they're ever going to solve that problem. And you could ask Pete, but I don't know that they're ever the it was one of our missiles. Pete, I don't know that they're ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it because there were missiles flying all over the place. And it's horrible what happened. But there were missiles flying all over the place. And somebody said it was our missile. Well, maybe it was an army missile, but I've seen nothing to lead me to believe it was. There were plenty of missiles being flown by other people. What do you think? By other pe other people. What? The the Israelis probably using your missiles if if if it was the Israelis, but nonetheless, you were working together. Very proud on February 28th if I know you remember that, Patrick. They're very proud of their collaboration then. But yeah, this is what I'm talking about. Your your reality. It's like we shouldn't be looking too deeply into motivations here when obviously uh the the uh center of these people is uh has nothing to do with morals. 37 minutesNo, he he he would he would rather walk over a bed of fiery red hot coals and broken glass than to ever admit or take responsibility for uh the myriad of war crimes uh which he is guilty of. And you see how he deflects to he's so insecure. He's such a coward. Our president, he has to deflect to the Fox News weekend host Pete Haggset. Say, "What do you think, Pete?" Wasn't one of ours, was it? This is the same type of cope you saw in Gaza when Israel hit a hospital. They tried to blame it on Hamas. They said, "Oh, it was an Israeli missile. It was a Hamas missile that that misfired and did a U-turn and ended up hitting the hospital." Just totally shameless. um Israeli and US mainstream propaganda. This is worse because it was a double tap. You know, it was a double tap. So, just what a coward. Um completely shameless 38 minuteshustler Donald Trump. It's it's it's not even embarrassing at this point, you know, when when you see that. It's why a lot of Republicans and former supporters can't stand the sight of him. They just don't want to see him anymore. his the mere sight and sound of his voice induces nausea at this point. These are his supporters and it's because of that he's just a fundamentally dishonest and you know dark mean-hearted person uh deep down he's got no not doesn't have a compassionate bone in his body. Um he is an absolute uh uh robot on autopilot uh a narcissistic uh android as far as we can see. So, I mean, it's just ridiculous. And, you know, it's it's it's also the the whole shtick of him holding court with his entourage is just so embarrassing. That's that is a fundamentally weak leader needs to always be flanked by his entourage of stooges, yesmen who sit there. Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. President. He's got one next to him, the the the the looney Dutchman, Mark Rut, secretary general of NATO. What does it take to do that job? whatever. And he's got pie charts and graphs that he's showing off to daddy and and trying to, you know, ingratiate himself uh with the president. Just the the sickopanty of that whole display with Mark Route from from the Netherlands is embarrassing. And uh he's clearly angling for a job in Washington or with some defense contractor. Um so he's absolutely kissing the you know what of Donald Trump. Um, but what what Rut did, what's funny about that is he basically was bragging about how many US flights, you know, how NATO played a role in attacking Iran. Yeah, it's an undeclared I have that clip actually. I have that clip actually. Yeah, I'd love to see it. [laughter] We can we can play that. It's very 40 minutesshort. Uh because I wanted to actually talk about um uh this uh and what it means for Europe and of course whatever else you wanted to say. Here you go. I think so. Yes, you're right and and I totally understand the disappointment. But when you take for example Italy, 500 US planes took off from US bases in Italy uh to support uh epic fury. So this is massive. Um when you look at the whole of European between four and 5,000 a country like Romania its capital uh Bucharest they had to cut down on commercial air airflights and airplanes because they had to use the airports for the tanker facilities. So all this is taking place. So uh there you go. Europe was a major party to the war in Iran which of course uh very good for Europe right Patrick your your whatever you please continue. I know answer it's what he's done there is he's I'm I'm glad he did he's done this because it's opened up a big 41 minutesconversation and he he's implicated Italy and Romania and we can also throw Germany and Britain and other countries Greece uh into that mix these these NATO members he's implicated them in an illegal undeclared war of aggression completely illegal completely un unprovoked and uh just rapacious killing of Iranian civilians and uh infrastructure and just trying to do damage, war crimes, crimes against humanity. He's he's implicated all these NATO countries. So what what Mark Rut's basically done there is saying that Europe's in the war. Europe's part of the war. We we are a co-elligerent. Europe is a co-elligerent in the war. Uh Iran didn't violate Article 5. They did attack some US bases where the US is in NATO. How come the European countries uh didn't send their air force to attack Iran? Of course, they didn't send anything. Not going to do anything because the United States is NATO. But what they've done there is Iran, according to the laws of war, would have every right to fire an intermediate range ballistic missile at any of these bases in Italy, in Greece or Cyprus or Romania or Germany. And what would the Europeans do? Oh, there would just be righteous indignation and outrage. How dare these Central Asians attack Europe? This is an unprovoked attack of Europe. We can't allow this to stand. We mustn't appease. This is uh you know Hitler all again. It's Poland glowitz. That's that's the reaction of the Europeans and not having any of the self-awareness to understand that they are a co-elligerent. They've allowed their bases like Saudi, like Bahrain, like Kuwait, 43 minuteslike uh the other Gulf states that were the UAE that um basically incriminated themselves by hosting US military bases that were used to uh attack and murder Iranians and destroy Iranian infrastructure, which is a a war crime. So, they they painted a target on themselves technically. You know, Iran's not doing that. They're probably not going to do that. But if they wanted to, they could. And they would be completely legally, according to international law, within their rights. And Mark Ruti Mark Route himself just impuged Italy and all of these countries. He just sentenced Europe to a future uh debit on their ledger. Okay? You notice how nobody ran to the defense of the Gulf States because they couldn't make a legal argument because Iran was right. Do you notice that nobody came to the to their aid? Really, because they couldn't. They're caught with their pants down allowing the US to use them as lily pads for attacking uh and starting a massive risky and horrendous war. And the Europeans are no different than the Gulf States in that respect. No different. The only difference is ah it's white Europe. They wouldn't dare attack us. We can attack them. That's fine. We're okay with that. Let's celebrate it. 500 US flights from Italy. You want a standing ovation for Mark Route? Oh, but if the Iranians hit back, no, no, no. That's just that's an act of war. Back snapback sanctions and all the rest of it. This aggression must not stand. I mean, I'm so sick of these people. But this this is the same convoluted argument they use with Russia. They're just able to they've been able to sell this with Russia and erase the fact of everything that happened from the Maidan and uh NATO's uh proxy war in the Donbass for 8 years prior to uh February 2022. They're able to whitewash all that because they have total control of their own media and political discourse to the point where most people don't even know what actually happened in Ukraine and how it happened, much less have a clue that the United States initiated a violent coup in a civil war in that country which led to Russian intervention in the Dombas. Uh so but with Iran, it's no different. It's no different. So it it really I think that's one of the really obvious uh failures of the argument coming from the west. Mark Route just exposed it. I mean we have to thank him. We need to send him a card or maybe a box of cookies or biscuits or something to thank him for Victoria Nuland when you need her. Huh. 46 minutesYeah. The bag. Mrs. Fields. Um so uh that's one of them. Um the other one is there's another uh collusion. I I don't want to belabor this point because I've talked about this a lot recently because I think it's a central point and it needs to be discussed. This can no longer be relegated to the kind of can't talk about it category. The whole basis of the impass in Lebanon is based on one thing that the US, Israel and its allies have labeled Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and that gives them cart blanch to occupy Lebanon to violate international law to do everything outside of international law. The United Nations does not designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and neither do most countries in the world. But Israel does and its allies must if Israel um uh if Israel insists that's why those designations exist. Hezbollah isn't hasn't attacked any European countries. Uh they don't have an expeditionary terrorist arm but they are legally prescribed as a terrorist organization and their political wing which holds the majority of seats in the Lebanese parliament is also prescribed as a terrorist organization. Explain how you do that. So but that's the problem. That is the seed of everything because that's allowed them to isolate Hezbollah and it's allowed them to leave them kind of to fend for themselves in South Lebanon to to repel the Israeli invasion to protect the southern border. Okay. um if if if if they allowed the Lebanese armed forces to have all of the equipment like an air force and air defense to control their own airspace, um Israel would not be able to roam around cart blanch in Lebanon and there would be uh you know resistance and negotiations ultimately because force meets force of ultimately there's going to be negotiations. There's nothing now just bullying and a Lebanese armed forc's policy of not to engage with Israel. So Hezbollah is engaging with him and this is all by design. This has been engineered this situation over decades because the US want to separate the and Israel wants to separate the Lebanese army from Hezbollah. They don't want them to integrate like the Iraqis did after the battle uh of ISIS when the Hashe was folded under the Iraqi mod. They don't want that in Lebanon. They want to isolate them so they can pick them off. Um and also so that gives them an excuse to invade and occupy. That's simple. And this is the this is the basis of it. There there have been groups that have been prescribed as terrorist groups and then the the prescriptions reversed. It's happened to the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization. That's a good example. What about the MEK? The United States had them listed as a terrorist organization. Now they're not for different reasons. is obviously not for anything good that the MEK has done. Although pouring money into the pockets of US congressman senators is probably a good thing in Washington. Uh that's what the MEK has been doing since Hillary Clinton lifted their prescription in 2012. They're just pumping money into the US political system as bribe money um to get them to well they promise that they'll achieve regime change in Iran. That's the whole sales pitch for the MEK. So what I'm saying Danny is that's the center of the problem actually that's what's distorting the whole thing and creating this trip wire that and allowing Israel to do break every rule to commit genocide. You could extend the same question uh to other uh resistance groups in Palestine. Not going to name any names but take your pick. Right. So that's that's another conversation that Europe is too too afraid to have because they don't want to go against the Israel lobby in the United States. So they just go along to get along. Well, guess what? Look at the situation in Lebanon. You think this is good? And who are the terrorists in Lebanon? Who's been slaughtering civilians? Who's displaced 1.5 million people? Not Hezbollah. Israel has. Who are the terrorists? Just look at the record. Look at what they've done. How long can they keep this facade going? This this pantomime, this joke of a geopolitical theater in in in in the political sense. I mean, it's not a joke on the ground. Not for the Palestinians or the Lebanese, but in terms of the political the politics of it, it's a joke. It's a bad joke at this point. And you know, shame on the uh political leaders in Europe, in the US for allowing this pantomime to continue and all based on these uh political designations that are not objective definitions of anything. And again, the United States doesn't list any of these groups [clears throat] as terrorist groups. In fact, the uh the the the UN charter article 51 says, well, you have a right to armed uh liberation struggle by force if necessary uh in for self-defense. So that's that's in article 51. It's also enshrined in the Geneva Conventions which we all ratified our governments. We've ratified the Geneva convent conventions and international human rights law as well. It it's so if the whole purpose of this deception is to to to take this situation out of an international law framework to pull it out so that we they can run their own bilateral justice framework between the US and Israel. Hezbollah is completely compliant with international law and compliant with ceasefires. Israel is not. So, but they don't want to give them agency and they can do that simply by slapping a label on them. It's as simple as that. This is this is the central fundamental obstacle in my opinion and it's been abused and look where it's got us. Look where it's got us. Not very good. Not a very good place. Yeah. we can uh the number of uh Israeli settlers that have been injured and or or killed by Hezbollah is just is such a dramatically small number and we've covered that here on this program. uh and nonetheless, exactly as you said, they have the right uh to resist occupation. And you mentioned uh groups, you know, the precedent has been set in the past for the United States to undesate terrorist groups. But uh there was there was one, remember Patrick, uh 2024, what happened in Syria, HTS, aka al-Qaeda in Syria came to power on the uh with Golani as the uh figurehead. He had a massive bounty on his head by the US State Department for how long? And now no more bounty. And he is the president of Syria. And he sat down at the United Nation with who? David Petraeus. And and these types and just sat in the oval office, Danny. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and the the the cologne. And he was given two what? Two, three, hundred cologn, you know. Yeah. So so so so that was reversed. They they reversed al-Qaeda. So don't tell me it's impossible and it can't be done. Of course it can't be done. By the way, uh you mentioned people killed in northern Israel. Okay. Um that is part of uh back and forth hostilities. But what started it? What started it October 8th, October 9th? What happened? Hezbollah fired rockets and on IDF positions and the global headlines said or what Trump calls the fake news. The fake news said Hezbollah attacked Israel, but that was a lie. 54 minutesThose IDF uh positions were in occupied Lebanese stroke Syrian territory, the Sheba farms, not in Israel. Israel is in violation of international law, multiple UN resolutions by even being there. They're legitimate targets, the IDF. So Hezbollah was merely uh firing at invaders. technically and then Israel unleashed all hell after that against Lebanese targets and Hezbollah responded. So by the time you're into the response and and counter response and tit for tat, you you can't go and sort of wag your finger and say that uh you know after Israel has you know completely slaughtered thousands of Lebanese civilians for no reason, you can't go and then complain uh if returns fire in northern Israel. So for the very same just they can use the same justification Israel does in terms of their security. They are Lebanese and they're not occupying Israeli land, but Israel is occupying Lebanese land and lots of it now. But even before that, they're occupying 13 different uh slivers of uh behind the UN blue line or on the UN blue line and they were supposed to leave from those positions from 2000 and they didn't. Why? Oh, because of our security needs, Israel. So they don't have to abide by any international law. Look, if we imposed international law, the US decided it was going to do that, all of these problems would be gone like that. It would just evaporate. It'd be over. But the US can't do that because they themselves uh don't want to be pulled up on all their violations of international law. That's the problem. Yeah. You can't open the can of worms. Nope. You cannot over well you know in the last five minutes that we have Patrick I I mean uh I think it must be noted that whether it's Hezbollah Palestinian resistance and let's put Iran I mean of course we put on in there let's put Iran in there now even with the what we opened with in the straight of Hormuz throughout this whole period fire whether it was firing on tankers or targeting US assets in the region the number of uh human beings whatever you think whether it's US military people on these tankers that have been injured or killed is minuscule to what Iran has experienced. And Iran intentionally, we can see it even with something like hitting this tanker with a drone or the US assets. They're out there to destroy the assets. They don't actually really care or care to hurt people. you we don't think that uh a Karashabar, however you say it, or any of these advanced Iranian missiles and these drones can't kill people. They don't think they could have gotten that F-15 pilot. Uh they could have probably, but they don't. Uh in large part because they follow the laws of war and they have no interest. Actually, I I believe in Iran for Iran and probably for a lot of the resistance is killing people is probably seen as not not, you know, the most uh desirable thing when it comes but it might it you know dead US soldiers could advance the Iranian cause in so much as they might uh create pressure in the US political system to uh deescalate or withdraw. But that's not their intention. And if it was, as you said, Danny, they could have done a lot more. You don't have to you don't have to be so targeted. Yeah, it certainly they knew where the the troops that who fled the uh fifth fleet in Bahrain and started staying in the hotels or the same in the UAE started staying in the They knew where those hotels were. They could have easily but then, you know, you put you might put uh you know, the migrant workers in the UAE and Bahrain, the Arab population, whatever, you know, at risk. And so yeah, turns out that the resistance is thinking a little bit more about morals and principles. Shocker than Yeah, they're much more circumspect. They're much more circumspect all the way around. And the US is not. Israel certainly is not. Um let's not forget that Trump said it was going to end their civilization. I mean, that's not an empty threat. It's not an empty threat because they already sort of begun doing that or attempted to do that. Uh you saw those black clouds over Tan when they were targeting uh oil storage facilities in a in a city with a population of 12 million or 15 million and and all the health effects generational health effects that are going people are going to experience from that. Do do these people care in America about that? They care about all the pregnant women that might have had miscarriages because of that or all the poison drinking water and all the children that are going to be uh chronically ill going into the future uh because of that. Do they really care? You know, so yeah. Yeah. Well, uh thanks to those who gave super chats. Uh this is an interesting question, Patrick. Do you have a 60-cond explainer of how the United States started the war in Ukraine? Ask if we have videos. I mean, you could watch both of our coverage of this over the over the course of years, but uh uh I'll give you 60 I'll give you . Um the United States backed a violent coup in Kiev in the Maidan in February of 2014 uh with the expressed intent of regime change. And that that basically triggered a violent civil war of eight years um whereby the United States encouraged uh Perishenko and then Zilinski after him to deploy their army to attack and kill their own people in the Donbass Ukrainians Ukrainian nationals who spoke Russian. Okay. And eight 14,000 people were killed as they were shelling civilians in Donbass. And that went on for eight years. Russia basically said this has to stop. They did a UN resolution. A security council was unanimously passed to do the Minkx Accords and the Germans and the French intentionally sandbagged it as did Porhenko and Zalinski to buy time for NATO to arm up the Ukrainians for a bigger war against Russia. So it was all by design 100%. And I just giving you like 1% of that story there. But that's what you need to know. And Russia said, "If the UN Security Resolution fails, 220 for the Minkx peace process, if it fails, we will have no choice but to intervene probably." And guess what? They did. So the Europeans and the Americans intentionally sabotaged the UN Security Council peace resolution. Intentionally sabotaged it. They're on record. Angela Merkel, Francois, Holland, Porenko, and Zalinsky. four people admitted it on record. So, this isn't a conspiracy theory. That's what happened. And Russia did exactly what it said it's going to do. Do a humanitarian intervention to protect their people uh in Eastern Ukraine. And then Europe and the West, all holy murder. Oh my god, this injustice must not stand. This aggression by Putin, it came out of nowhere. He woke up one day and decided he was going to take over Ukraine. And if we let him take over Ukraine, he's going to roll all the way to the English Channel. Yeah. In a nutshell, that's the just that's the narrative right there. Yeah. No, great summary. Uh everybody, thanks so much for joining today. I want to make sure everyone knows that 21st Century Wire uh what uh the what Patrick leads the uh great outlet is in the video description below the YouTube channel. So, be sure to subscribe there and support it as well as Patrick's Substack. Patrick, any final words before we head out of here today? Uh, no, no, uh, not not at all. Um, I will say, um, uh, thank you very much, Danny, for the, uh, invitation, the conversation. Um, keep an eye on the, uh, economy. That's what I'll tell people. Really, keep an eye on the economy. Close eye. Yeah, definitely. All right, everybody. Thanks for the super chats. Thanks to all the moderators who moderated. Thanks all the viewers, of course, who viewed. Uh, as you leave here, be sure to hit the like button. Uh, that helps boost the show and YouTube's algorithm. And I'll be back tomorrow with friend Muhammad Mandi, uh, 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. See you then.
Trump BLEW IT! US Air Force ATTACKS Iran – Ceasefire OVER | Mohammad Marandi Danny Haiphong Streamed live 2 hours ago #iran #trump #iranwar
Mohammad Marandi joins the show to discuss the US conducting airstrikes on Iran overnight and Iran's retaliation, signaling a rapid end to the MoU ceasefire. Prof. Marandi addresses these in context of major criticisms on Iran amid fallout in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz.
Transcript
Welcome to the show everyone. Danny Haiphong here. First, some news. As you can see, I'm joined by Professor Muhammad Mandi overnight. Uh the United States struck Iran in the uh area of Surik near the straight of Hormuz. Multiple areas were hit. Sentcom published this video as quote unquote evidence of their strike. uh and Iran has said that they have retaliated and Bahrain announced earlier this morning that a drone attack occurred in the early hours in retaliation by Iran. Of course, this all comes as tensions in the street of Hormuz are rising. The United States JD Vance has said that there is going to be violence for violence if uh attacks in the straight of Hormuz continues. As you can see, I am joined by First Muhammad Randi to discuss all of this and more. First, Randy, good to see you again. Hi Danny, thank you very much for inviting me. It's always a great pleasure being with you. Of course, hit the like button everyone as we get started. So, yes, Russ, your reactions to the uh developments. This is the first strike since the memorandum of understanding began uh or was signed by both parties. Now it seems like Iran is considering suspending it alto together after this act of aggression. Your reaction and what it uh means for the overall trajectory of this war. Well, the Americans are violating theou as expected. The Iranians never believe that the United States had any intention of voluntarily uh carrying out its commitments. But um the Iranians in return for all US violations are to uh make it more difficult for the United States uh in the state of Hormos and uh the Americans have violated its commitments to the situation in Lebanon. Uh the Israeli regime continues to occupy uh enormous parts of southern Lebanon and to carry out strikes uh all of that must come to an end in accordance with the deal. That's the first article inou the United States has been trying to undermine Iran's uh authority in the uh straight of uh by forcing Oman to declare an open corridor. Uh that's another violation. The US constant threats against Iran. Trump again during the negotiations spoke of killing murdering the negotiators and destroying Iran and threatened the president. All of these are violations. So the United States violates the deal on all fronts including releasing Iranian uh assets. That's also been something that's slow. It's of course what Trump said about Iran's assets that are to be released are not true about purchasing American agricultural products. uh and not having control over their assets. But in any case, the United States is in violation. So the Iranians warned these ships not to go through. One ship uh ignored Iran's authorities, military authority, and the Iranian and that ship was struck. Iran did not of course take any responsibility, but it's obvious where what happened. So um the Americans struck last night. It wasn't a very important strike. They hit uh I think a u a a tower which is made in Iran. They just produce they'll replace it. The Iranians retaliated by striking uh Bahrain. And again today another ship was struck sending another message that uh uh only uh the Iranian declared corridor is acceptable. Some ships do go through. They they smaller ships. They cling to the Omani shore. They go from uh the Emirates to the alongside very close to the Omani shore and then go to the Fuja port, but they're small ships and then they transport their goods to bigger ships to like bigger big tankers and then a number of them have to go through to um to fill up a tanker. So some do go through and it seems that the Iranians are uh tolerating that but uh for the most part the number of ships that have gone that go back and forth are down uh they're not near as much as they were before the war and that's because of US uh inaction with regards to the United States if they carry out their commitments the Iranians will carry out theirs. If the United States doesn't the Iranians won't either. If the United States does goes halfway, then the Iranians are going to go halfway. Every uh the difference between the situation now and before is that the Iranians in in previous agreements with the United States is that this time around the Iranians are not going to carry out or fulfill their obligations and carry out their commitments unless the Americans do. Well, I want to pull up now the Iranian military uh announcement after the attacks on Sirk. Uh because I think one thing that I find interesting is that Iran says that their naval and air forces were able to thwart and foil the attack and force the attacking forces to retreat, preserving Iranian sovereignty over land, its land and its waters. So I'm wondering professor Randi does Iran even view these attacks as very significant if they are having the cap like in terms of um you know the the damage and the proportionality of it how they respond uh given that they say that they were able to thwart it. I assume that means air defenses and other means and methods to ensure the attack was very short-lived by the United States. But your your thoughts on this? I don't know the details, but what I do know is that nothing of importance was struck and whether that's because it was sorted or the Americans didn't intend to do much or a combination of both, I don't know. But um the Iran the the Iranian response uh I I would imagine was probably a bit more heavy-handed than the US strike because that's how Iran has been doing things during the last month or so. Uh over the last month, every time the United States violates the ceasefire, Iranians hit harder in response. In the past, it was proportionate, but uh in pre previous ceasefire violations, but now it's been different. So, I would imagine that the Iranians hit a bit harder, but I don't know exactly what the Iranians have done. You know, according to NBC News and other uh sources, it's being reported that the Trump administration timed this attack to align with the closing of the markets in the United States. And we are seeing constantly whenever this has happened, we saw this before theou was signed when Iran and the United States were going back and forth. the US would attack, Iran would strike back uh also around the straight of Hormuz area. Uh we would see very little come out and then of course Sencom publishes the video I put up which shows shows very little. I I mean Sensecom it's it's unclassified information but it simply just shows plumes of smoke coming out. You know it doesn't show any much detail. What do you make of this? It feels like this war has only become more 8 minutesand more censored especially by uh the US side. Well, I think uh this war has been unique that we only discovered uh the immense amount of damage after the war. I mean, everything that the Iranians said turned out to be true. It if you recall, after General Solommani was murdered, the Iranians carried out a missile strike on a US base in northern Iraq and did a lot of damage, but it really wasn't reported back then. And only later did we find out that there was really heavy damage done and uh that there were significant casualties. But um this time around it's been the entire war is has been uh full of uh hidden the US military either lying or hiding facts. And um and the Iranians have been much more accurate in in reporting on what what was going on uh inside the country than the Americans reporting on what was going on inside their military bases. Yeah. And here's a report uh that uh the United States, the Pentagon delayed publicly notifying or announcing the strikes on Iran until after the stock market closed 400 p.m. Eastern time on Friday to reduce the immediate impact on the markets. And that seems to be a big concern here where you have uh the oil uh price of oil going down after the memorandum of understanding yet still a lot of concern about managing the situation. The United States came out right after these strikes and said this does not torpedo the memorandum of understanding for them. This is not a return to war. But a ceasefire violation is a ceasefire violation. Uh, Professor Mandi, uh, in all intents of purposes, when the US attacked Iran, the ceasefire is completely broken. No. And not to mention the situation in Lebanon, which is only getting worse after this so-called agreement that the so-called government uh, that is being protested heavily in the streets of Beirut right now, uh, decided to engage with and agree upon with the US and Israel. Your thoughts? Oh, yes. The United States is violating the ceasefire on uh on multiple accounts and the the so-called agreement in Lebanon which was signed by the government which is a proxy government. The the president and the prime minister were installed by the Americans. No one should think that they were chosen by the uh politicians who were elected. the Americans impose them on the country and they've been carrying out u policies that have been dictated to them by the Americans uh just like the government in Syria. Uh and so there this the the agreement between this government and Lebanon first of all they're the very fact that they negotiate with the Israelis is is a violation of Lebanese law. uh but uh their negotiations were a huge cap capitulation because there's the the Israeli regime is isolated across the world now countries everyone despises the regime even Trump admits this and then at a time when it's becoming isolated the only country that moves in the opposite direction and strengthens and builds ties with the Israeli regime not just strengthens ties builds ties with the regime is the Lebanese government and instead of first getting concessions just to sit down with them because they should make huge demands saying look we this is this is going to cost us immensely and you need us to negotiate with you to be seen as to be acknowledged as you know legitimate supposedly um you have you have to give us Lebanese the Lebanese concessions nothing they they did this for free And what did they get in return? A day or two later, uh a uh a lieutenant general and in a in a convoy of the Lebanese army and his companions were murdered. So the more you uh appease Zionism, the more aggressive Z the Zionists become. So this capitulation by the Lebanese president and prime minister and uh and this gifting of southern Lebanon to the Israeli regime because the Israelis have no intention of ever leaving and these people know it. Uh this is a huge betrayal of the country. It's it's treason to if if anyone looks at it objectively reminds me of 19th century 18th century imperialism. But um um it is a violation of the agreement 13 minuteswith Iranou because in accordance with the Israeli regime has to leave Lebanese sovereignty has to be accepted and the world war has to come to an end. So this agreement was an attempt to undermine theou but Iran is not going to accept that. Iran doesn't he doesn't care if the Lebanese prime minister and the president sell off their parents. Uh for the only thing that is important for Iran is that the Americans have to carry out article one of theou and until that happens there won't be normalization in the Persian Gulf. And that's the, you know, the that's that's literally why the United States ultimately had to accept so many of Iran's conditions because Iran controls the straight of Formos. With this deal though, President, you said it uh very poignantly that this is a direct violation and an intentional violation of the memorandum of understanding. Do you find that one of the key parts of this is to try to plunge Lebanon into such instability that it is very difficult and complicated for Iran then to get involved as they said they would if there were violations of this clause because it's not Iran has already shown that it will strike Israel for engaging in aggression uh against Lebanon. But uh if there is a civil war scenario, if there's a scenario where you have the government against the people, the government against Hezbollah, which in many cases this agreement is really an anti-Hzbollah uh recognized Israel agreement, uh that that makes things far more complicated, doesn't it? Hezbollah is very smart. They're very wise. And there have been many occasions in the past where uh enemies of Lebanon pushed the country towards civil war and Hezbollah refrained from going there. And the current leader of Hezbollah, the secretary general has shown himself to be very very wise and very smart. And he's managed the organization very well. And on the battlefield, they've also performed very well over the past two three months. Uh the plan is civil war. That's what the Israeli regime wants. They talk about it all the time and that's obviously a US polit that's what the US wants to see as well. At least at least they want to see uh the resistance destroyed and the Israeli hijgemony over Lebanon assured and have no doubt that if the Israeli regime gets its way, they'll take the whole of Lebanon. the collaborators right now uh in Lebanon, you know, the wealthy collaborators, if Lebanon were to to fall ultimately one day, they'll go to their mansions and palaces in uh southern France or in uh Florida or wherever they have their they've they've hidden their wealth. But ordinary people will will be refugees. They'll be like it'll be like the West Bank or Gaza or all those other places where the Israeli regime takes land and uh and and kills it the natives living there. So while the Americans are trying to use their proxies in Syria u against Hezbollah to some effect because right now they are shutting the border to prevent Iran from smuggling aid to the resistance from from that part of the country. Um but Syria the Syrian regime is in no position to attack Lebanon. It's it's a broken regime. It's it's comprised of all these different terrorist groups and uh the government is busy killing factions within these organizations or people within these factions that were don't agree with them. Uh and they're also killing minorities uh especially on the coast nowadays again. But they don't have the power to go into Lebanon. And if they do, the Iranians will uh if the Iranians can defeat the Americans with missiles and drones, it's not going to be a problem defeating the Syrian regime. Um and of course the Iraqi resistance would resistance would intervene too. Uh so Syria isn't that much of a problem in Lebanon. The army of Lebanon, half of them at least are sympathetic to the resistance. at least because uh the majority of Lebanese don't support this policy and they know that the president and the prime minister do not have popular mandate and uh they everyone knows the intentions of the Israeli regime. So the majority are not with this. I mean there are those who are anti- Hezbollah like the sort of ISIS 18 minutesal-Qaeda type that are funded by Katar and and Erdogan and and and these others in the in the Persian Gulf and of course the the the u the the fascists like the Lebanese forces and others who are funded by the West and NOS's and Western embassies and Western intelligence agencies. these these will uh these are of course they they support all of this because of their hatred towards the resistance but most Lebanese don't accept that. So I I don't think they can sec successfully carry out a civil war and Hezbollah is very careful. Yeah. Well, let's um let me pull up this. This is uh JD Vance uh what he is saying and and I want your thoughts on this. This is this is the narrative the United States is pushing out there after these strikes and after the Lebanon deal. Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored it. If they have disagreements about how theou is being applied, they can pick up the phone, but violence will be met with violence. Uh for Randi, uh the United States has honored the ceasefire agreement, they said, but yet at the same time lost the definition, it seems of what ceasefire is. Oh yes. I mean in uh first of all they've been violating uh the ceasefire during this whole la the last two months they've u they on many many occasions as you and I have discussed in the past they've bombed Iranian islands the Iranian mainland uh and and on and on every occasion the Iranians retaliated and of course in Lebanon you see you we saw saw genocide unfold and ethnic cleansing and and mass slaughter and mass and systematic destruction. That wasn't a problem for 20 minuteshim. And as we speak, it is going on in Gaza, too. The Holocaust there continues. And uh that is also part of the agreement. Gaza isn't named, but it's it says a regional end to this violence. So the Americans are violating the as I said earlier the the uhou at multiple le levels and they they have I mean they they started this war uh they waged war against the Iranian people unprovoked illegal. So for them to talk about Iran violating the ceasefire that's uh that's a bit too much. Iran warned a ship not to travel without coordinating with Iran through the straight of Hormos. that is not a violation of the ceasefire and that ship uh refused to uh abide by uh orders from the navy and it was hit. So and so that Iran did not strike us the United States for the United States to strike Iran. 21 minutesNow, the United States military is saying that they are ready to provide $30 million, which to a trillion dollar albatross is a drop in the bucket. But nonetheless, they are saying that they want to provide this to the Lebanese armed forces. and Professor Morandi, I don't really know what this means because the United States uh ultimately uh if they're going to change the calculation here, which is they they're going to have to provide some massive support. I don't know what $30 million will buy for the Libyan armed forces. But ultimately, all of this is geared toward what they say is to disarm Hezbollah, which again is is is only inciting more conflict and therefore in violation of theou. It's it's this circle that goes around and around and around. Yes, of course. this this support for the army. They always say that we support the Lebanese army not so that it could defend the country but so that it could attack Hezbollah. They they they say it all the time. So this this uh is about uh supporting the president and the prime minister in pushing the country towards civil war. But again, I find it difficult to imagine that it actually happens and if it does that it succeeds because um Hezbollah has massive support in the armed forces and the armed forces would collapse and Hezbollah is a very powerful and competent military force and they have huge popular support and most people as I said don't support this policy of capitulation to the Israeli regime. and the gifting of Lebanese territory to Israel because it's obvious that this regime is not going to back down. So Iran is going to ignore all this. Iran is going says that we have anou. You want us to normalize trade through the straight of hormones. You have to carry out article one. It's as simple as that. And until that happens, there's not going to be an agreement and there's not going to be normalization uh in in the trade of hormones. So the United States has to make a decision. They can do all they want, do make all the agreements what they want with the Israeli regime, but the pressure is going to continue to build. The economic pressure more ships are are moving through this trade than they were uh 3 4 weeks ago. But uh the shortages uh across the world continue to grow at a slower pace, but they continue to grow. And uh therefore, the United States is by no means out of the woods. Iran knows that. And until Article One is implemented, that's how it's going to be. So what Iran and I should just add this what Iran is pushing and what it has been pushing for the last almost four months now is that it's trying is trying to drive a wedge between the United States and the Israeli regime trying to push the United States towards economic crisis so that h so that it ultimately has to prioritize its own interests over that of the Israeli regime because it's always Israel first and now the Israelis want one thing but and but the Americans see that if they continue if they follow the uh Israeli regime's lead that it will be devastating for their own uh economy. That's why they signed theou in the first place. That's why they gave all those concessions to Iran. They didn't do it willingly. And the Iranians know quite well that the even after they signed it theou there was no intention by the Americans to carry it out as we've as we discussed earlier they've always they've been constantly trying to undermine the uhou but the Iranians are going to remain steadfast and they will make sure that until all of its demands are met some have been met the US has lifted the siege a disproportionate amount of the oil that's been exported from the Persian Gulf during the last since the signing of the agreement ofou has been Iranian oil, huge amounts of Iranian oil. So Iran has been able to make up for a lot of u lost exports, but uh so they've lifted the siege, they've lifted the sanctions on Iranian the Iranian energy sector officially at least. Well, I I don't know if it's being actually implemented. uh they've spoken about releasing Iranian assets. I don't know how far that's gone, but they clearly have not implemented the deal and uh and of course the issue of Lebanon is the first article and until that happens until it happens there won't be an agreement and so the trade through the straight of hormones is going to continue to be uh much less than it should be. Well, person Randy, I think it's a good time now to ask you about some narratives I've noticed as these strikes have these strikes have reemerged and as theou uh builds on days and now weeks of uh its signing. There's many more people the commentariat all over social media those reporting news maybe exploiting some news uh all talking about Iran losing its leverage even by uh mildly opening the straight of Hormuz and engaging in these talks and now with all the evidence of course that the United States is not going to be a part a good faith party to it as well as of course Israel's transgressions that uh staying in this and allowing it to go on in the same way it is going is tantamount to losing this leverage. What do you make of that? It's an argument I'm I'm hearing and I'm seeing come up as the days and weeks go by of the United States and Iran I guess sort of negotiating but not really. But at the same time, this is a big statement and I'm curious on your thoughts about it. Well, in Iran also there's this ongoing debate between those who support theou as it is and those who say that Iran has been too lenient and uh the leader he made a comment on theou which has broadened that debate even though his comment uh is not exactly I mean he doesn't ex explain he does point out that he's critical of the deal but He he he says he he gave the uh Supreme National Security Council and the government a mandate to carry it out, but he was he was obvious he was critical of it, but he doesn't explain how he's critical. And that of course is discussed has been discussed behind closed doors and I'm not uh privy to that sort of knowledge of uh what exactly what he what did he want that was not in the agreement uh but uh he was critical but some people in the country have taken this as like uh uh that the state is is capitulated and this is completely against what he wants. that is not necessarily the case. Um although there I I agree that there are criticisms of the deal. I think th both who those who support the deal they have good arguments to make and those who are critical of the deal have good arguments to make. Uh but I don't agree with either side completely and that that's uh usually how it is for me because I'm not on any political side and I've been accused by different factions of always being being affiliated to the other side with the the JCPOA. Some people have called me a staunch supporter of the nuclear deal. I never supported the nuclear deal and uh they would say I'm allied to those groups. And then um and then supporters of the nuclear deal, those hardcore supporters would say I'm one of the hardcore opponents of the nuclear deal. I was never a hardcore opponent of the nuclear deal. I just would say their problems with it, you know, there their shortcomings, but uh but you know, I'm not in either any of these political camps. What I think is fair to say is that those who there are those who who uh would like to see Iran la fire missiles and to keep the straight of hormones shut and uh that is it's not the the world is not as simple as that. I mean uh first of all Iran never closed the straight of Hormos. it was never fully closed. And uh there are countries that are friendly to Iran and axis of resistance that use the trade of hormones and if we shut them out and shut them down then maybe their politics would change. So um that's one issue. The second is that Iran is uh itself uh it was being targeted through the siege uh and its own exports and imports imports were being blocked and uh the Iranian people the the you know right now inflation is uh very high. It's roughly I think something like 68% or 70%. That's very high. Of course, inflation in Iran has always been high because of the maximum pressure sanctions. Uh and the the government constantly adjusts the the u uh people's wages, government employee wages, the minimum wage and all that, but it's it's not easy. And now it's it's more difficult. So for people to expect uh for anyone to expect the state not to take into consideration the reality of the economic life of ordinary people. I think that's um they're being that's being too naive uh that or or they're being too simplistic. Uh the government ha you know the government u has to function. People have to have jobs. They have to have, you know, food there. Every supplies have to exist. And so Iran uses the straight of hormones, too. Uh Iran was tough. They outlasted the Americans in siege warfare. They compensated to a large degree by using uh their neighboring countries to import goods to export what they could, but it was it was it made life much more difficult. So Iran has been using this deal to export. Um, but also the Iranians continue to enforce uh to put pressure on the United States through limiting uh the uh the number of ships that can pass through the straight of Hormos. And that's how the Iranian if it wasn't if if the Iranians didn't have that sort of leverage, the Americans wouldn't have lifted the siege. If Iran didn't have that leverage, the Americans wouldn't have conceded uh to accepting the sovereignty of Lebanon and so on and and to ending the war across the region. And so on the one hand, you have to keep this in mind that Iran has friends, countries like China and other countries that uh import from and and export to the region, but import from the region. Uh they can't just ignore them. uh they are friends of Iran and um and as I said the Iranians themselves have to uh continue to keep the running the the uh economy afloat uh in order to be able to resist in order to help the resistance in Lebanon in order to help it's not you know this they get support from Iran with we all know that uh in order to help uh Yemen protect itself in order to help Gaza. It's not as if the resistance in Gaza does not receives, you know, support from thin air. It comes it it comes from somewhere. So, developing those tunnels and put defense uh capabilities against further Israeli aggression, all of this costs money. So, uh at the negotiating table, the the United States conceded a lot. Is this an ideal situation? Definitely not. Am I a fan of this agreement? No. But in general, you know, what I what I try to do is not to take sides because when I'm speaking to yourself and others, I'm trying to defend what I think is the people on the right side of history, those who are doing the right thing. And I believe that Iran in the axis of his of of resistance has been doing that. And so if I don't agree with a particular thing that the president said or a position taken by the chief negotiator or a critic of the president or a critic of the chief negotiator, if I don't take a position on that, I think it's because it's not my responsibility. I don't think people outside of Iran uh really care too much about the the details to that degree as a you know for their uh you know what what is important is the fundamental differences that are taking place that exist between Iran, the United States, the Israeli regime. And then then once that what once that is established we can go into the details about uh what's going on in Iran. Why is one one one set of what one set of people opposed to the deal? I mean and why are some supporting the deal? But let me give you a personal example on campus. This was not so long ago. I was speaking with two of two of my students or two students. They're not my students but two students who came to my office and then a colleague came and said that um uh you know you you need to do a deal as if I'm a negotiator you need to do a deal the economic situation is difficult and uh you have to you know don't be so uh don't be so harsh and try to you know find some solution with Americans. I I said, "Look, I I'm not a negotiator. I I I'm not a decision maker." And he he left. And then literally later, I don't know, an hour later or later, uh another colleague and those those two students were still in the room talking about something completely different, just university stuff. And then uh this professor was saying, "Why are you conceding so much? why the Americans if if you keep going down this path, the Americans are going to give nothing and then we're going to they're going to come back for more war. And again, I said that look, I'm not a negotiator. I'm not a decision maker. So, uh both, you know, different sides make these uh critiques uh and assume that I'm involved. But I think that on the whole while there are problems with this uh uh with this agreement no doubt uh that uh the there are calculations behind it and Iran's most important um leverage against the Israeli regime and its occupation in Lebanon because that's what a lot of people are worried about obviously is its ability to put pressure on the US economy. I mean, Iran can lob a few missiles here and there and do damage, but the real pressure is when Iran keeps the straight of hormones uh half closed. That is what worries Trump and that's what he said explicitly. Yeah. And uh I think you know ideological differences and debates I think those are very much uh to be expected. But I do find it interesting that whenever there is a pause in the fighting, I think the initial reaction for a lot of people who as you said want to see missiles flying, uh they don't take it they don't take into consideration all these other factors as to why the missiles may have stopped flying and uh they go immediately toward well this person's a traitor, this leader, this it it it feels almost like uh I don't love to say these things, but it does feel like almost like a psychological operation, like it's trying to sew division. I mean, you know, you know, phrase, I'm Yeah, this is a good point. I'm in I've lived in Lebanon and right here there's a a picture of one of the marchers of Lebanon who was a a friend of my children and there's more than one in in my house and of Iranian marchers who I knew. But um uh I've live I've lived there. I'm in every day I'm in contact with people in Lebanon every single day. And uh and a Lebanese uh uh media outlet, the Al-Madin, invites me regularly to to to discuss the situation on on their shows on the on their on their TV channel. Uh so but I hear like these people tell me online you see online and some people send messages to me that Iran has betrayed Hezbollah but Hezbollah does not believe that Iran has betrayed it. So these people who are constantly putting out tweets saying how and they attack me online too. They say oh you've betrayed them. Look are you are you happy? Every time they kill innocent civilians in Lebanon during the past few days, ever since the ceasefire, ever since was signed, they say, "Are you happy now that they're slaughtering the Lebanese? I mean, it just for some, I don't know, some money from the United States." As if I'm a negotiator, you know, just so that the United States would hand over money, you you've sold Lebanon. But that's not how Hezbollah sees it. That's not how the secretary general of Hezbollah sees it. He's he said he's very happy with Iran's position. That's not what the uh the the uh the council of Hezbollah that rules Hezbollah sees it. That's not how their media says it. That's not how that's not how the people who I know in Hezbollah or those who are close to Hezbollah or the resistance see it. But these people who've never been to Lebanon uh uh and uh you know they they see it as a betrayal. The point is that it was largely it was because Iran threatened to to fire missiles at the Israeli regime that the United States accepted uh article one meaning the sovereignty of Lebanon. It was because so if Iran had fired those missiles then the United States after Iran had fired maybe the United States would then say okay now that you fired those missiles uh I'm not going to uh accept that article not going to. So sometimes by refraining from doing something you get concessions. Now someone may argue well the Americans are not going to carry it out. Of course they're not going to do so willingly. They support genocide. Look at Gaza. Look at Lebanon for the last 2 and 1/2 years more than two and a half years. But Iran has leverage. What is that leverage? It's the straight of hormones. It may not be so exciting. You know, you don't see these missiles fly flying through the air and it may be slower in its impact, but the impact is very real. I mean, for Trump to say the comp 41 minutesto be worried about becoming another Hen uh another Hoover, President Hoover, and for Trump to say openly that we only have four more weeks of uh of energy supplies, that's saying a lot. And that's that shows that the rate of hormones is important. Yeah. And back to your point that uh a lot of the now uh recover recovering shortfall of that oil uh that was being blocked is Iranian oil. Um and and that's interesting. I think that's I think some people have to acknowledge that while you may not love everything about this and it doesn't fit in some maybe like streamline perfect ideal that is uh always going to be a fantasy because there's so many factors that uh go into even victory. Uh uh the fact of the matter is is that Iranian oil right now is playing a big role in alleviating this uh shortfall because there are still so many ships stuck in the street of Hermuz that aren't following the designated route and won't be able to follow it because it's such a big backlog. I mean it it it this is reminds me of like weapons to Taiwan. The US keeps sending weapons to Taiwan. Taiwan can't use them. They can't train with them. They don't have the military class that have them. So they just keep piling up. It's like a big IOU. They keep p there's no they don't use them. But this is what happens when you wage war the way the United States does. It has it has consequences. And I want your comment on this professor Randi. You know, you mentioned those assets before. It feels like every time the United States, and this is I think going to be a big problem for this uh ceasefire or or maybe lack thereof agreement in that every time the United States says they're going to concede like the frozen assets, then they say they're going to control the whole process that they're going to dictate where the this money goes. This is Iranian money frozen in accounts that were that illegally did so uh in places like Qatar. And yet the United States is now saying they're going to control where these funds end up going. It reminds me of Venezuela after that uh horrific kidnapping of Maduro. Uh immediately they said, "Now we're going to control exactly where Venezuelan oil flows." Your thoughts on this? Yes. Then again, while I, as I said, I'm not a I think that there are flaws in this agreement. And personally, if I was involved, well, I would have probably uh made I would have insisted on a couple of things being different from what they are, especially with regards to the Well, anyway, uh since I'm not a negotiator, I don't want to go there. But um but another thing is that some of these people who are now constantly 44 minutessaying speaking of betrayal uh then now they begin to believe everything that Trump says and the entire world says Trump is a serial liar. But these people apparently when it comes to Iran they believe so believe all that he says. So when Trump says all this money is going to go to American farmers, these people basically say, "Oh, look, they betrayed uh the the you know the they betrayed the cause and they're they're they're going to buy American goods." And then if Trump or for example when uh the the Americans uh carry out the um they when they have that trilateral agreement between the Israelis and their proxies in Beirut, they said, "Look, the Iran, you know, the theou was just a p a piece of paper and they they sold out." No, that's not true. First of all, Iran did not accept the United States controlling uh its assets. Or for example, Trump says we're going to see all the nuclear installations. And then they say, see, they've sold out there, too. No, the Iranians have not agreed uh for the IAA inspectors to go to those sites that were bombed. uh IA IAA inspectors do go to sites and we've discussed this many times before that are not uh that were not bombed like the nuclear reactor in Busher there Russian staff working there or the Tehran experimental reactor that's uh uh for Iran that's never been a problem during you know so their inspectors go there but to those the Iranians have not agreed to them visiting this the sites that were bombed that's Iran did not speak to the chief negotiator. If the if theou progresses and we reach a stage where uh everything is sorted out then in in you know then yes ultimately when things normalize they normalize. Am I do I think that the uh negotiators everything that they do is ideal? No. Do I think that the text is ideal? No. But it's not what we're being told by Trump. And but suddenly some people seem to take everything that Trump says as fact. Uh and uh person who's known across the world to be utterly dishonest. So uh I think some friends have to be patient. But also um the the the Iran when Iran sells its oil or when Iran wants its assets back those assets are used to strengthen Iran and thus the axis of resistance. Those are concessions that are have been uh that Iran demands and Iran demands that sovereignty of Lebanon be restored. Is this going to be resorted resolved overnight? No. Is it going to be resolved in a month from now? No. may not this agreement may ultimately collapse or may be be extended in current form and some or in some other form for many months. I don't know what will happen but uh uh Iran is not naive about the United States. But what is important right now is that um the United States is in is facing difficulty not only the energy crisis but also the uh the situation in Ukraine. uh the the war Europe is escalating against uh Russia and the Russians are ultimately moving towards some sort of decision. Uh Trump is going to have great difficulty focusing on Iran and Russia and of course China uh for a long period of time under these very difficult circumstances. He did not defeat Iran on the battlefield. if he comes back for more and we know that their assets are in the region and they've they have enough assets to carry out a ground assault against Iran which we've discussed before uh but in Iran is prepared for that Iran the United States won't win that war and it would lead to a global economic catastrophe that would be far worse than the 1930s uh but uh that is a possibility but it becomes increasingly more difficult for the United States to to uh to wage this uh war with Iran um or this confrontation with Iran as the situation in Ukraine heats up. So, um it's not as if the Americans can do this forever. The pressure from Iran will continue. Uh and as I said, the the the straight of hormones is far more powerful than missiles. Missiles do damage, but ultimately it was it was through those missiles and drones that Iran kept the straight of hormones under its control. But the straight of hormones is the prize. So Iran will be able to put a lot of pressure on the United States. It doesn't it's not uh it doesn't look so exciting, but it has its impact. That's as we all know. And as I said, the situation in Ukraine is going to make it more difficult for the United States because the West right now is literally now waging war. They are they want to strengthen the drone and missile capabilities of the Ukrainians to strike Russia further and Russia is going to have to uh make some important decisions in the in the months ahead. I think Europe is not going to succeed. But in any case, uh the Iranians recognize that the that the West is is is facing great difficulty on multiple fronts and that strengthens Iran's hand. Um, and the Russians too. Many of my Russian friends who I'm also in regular contact say that, you know, it's it's good. It would be good if the Iran the Russians uh dealt with NATO like the Iranians dealt with these regimes in the region that collaborated with the Americans and the Israelis when they gave when they allowed their air bases and and the military bases and their territories to be used against Iran. Iran punished them. And uh now the Russians are saying well if you help the Ukrainians and you send them missiles and drones then you are complicit and now they're thinking about targeting them. The logic is not the same exactly. I mean these countries in the Persian Gulf were directly involved in the war. They have uh they were part of the war. Their territory was used against Iran. But the Russian logic is not without merit. the the Europeans are hellbent on uh on killing Russians and helping the Ukrainians. And so the Russians are saying, "Well, if you do that, then uh we'll take a page from the Iranian playbook and and perhaps strike NATO countries that are, you know, those uh that have missile factories and drone factories to help." So the point I'm making is that the weeks and months ahead are going to be very difficult for the west uh largely because of their own policies and uh the Iranians are going to remain steadfast and and at during this time of grave difficulty for the west economic and military and political and so on uh Iran is going to continue to insist that uh and and that every page every sentence, every word in theou is uh complied to it's it's it's uh it's carried out it's fulfilled and uh to your point uh professor Mandi uh I think it's important that and part of the psychological apparation I mentioned earlier is to divert attention away from what is happening especially for shows like this where audiences tend to be in the United States in the It can be very uh romantic, alluring, attractive to speculate and claim to know that what's going on inside of Iranian politics and leadership and all of this. It distracts away from the actual crisis that the wargoing and the wararmongering parties are experiencing, especially the United States. So you mentioned the economic side of this, you mentioned the geopolitical side of this where we have uh uh you know multiple fronts that are not going well for the US. But then there's also the domestic side of this that is heating up as well. This is Time magazine that summarized they summarized uh just a couple days ago what the Americans are thinking of the US Iran deal and some of these numbers are quite staggering. So, a Reuters Ipsos poll says just 24% of people in the United States think the war with Iran was worth the cost. Only 23% of respondents, including 50% of all Republican respondents, believe the US is now in a stronger position than before the war started. Uh 35% now think the US is in a weaker position. And uh to the uh issue of the deal, uh it doesn't get much better. um uh 63% of people in the United States and Reuters Ipsos will think it is unlikely theou will lead to lasting peace between the US and Iran. So all these numbers are very damning in the sense that not only is this war very unpopular, but people in the United States are not convinced that this deal will resolve the problems that they're experiencing because of it. which means that uh you know we're just a few months from midterm elections which are going to be a critical part of how the US regime dictates and governs itself over the next uh several years and um yeah it's we they don't have six months a year plus to correct that situation. So that's that's a major crisis. Yeah, I have no doubt that these are things that the Iranians are calculating. The Iranians are looking at US elections. The Iranians are looking at Ukraine. The Iranians are there are multiple things that they're looking at and calculating. And another accusation made is that the Iranians have sold out Gaza. Of course not. I mean, yeah. Ayat was martyed because of Gaza. Say Hassan Nasah was martyed because of Gaza. The war waged against Iran was because of Gaza. The the slaughter in Lebanon was because of Gaza. Everyone else is complicit. the governments in Egypt and Turkey and Jordan and Persian Gulf and across the world. No one has waging war. No one has even sanction no one has even uh cut off ties with the regime. Not a single country has cut off diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime. Not a single country has cut off economic ties, some import gas, some uh trans. Oh no. The first time the first the first error. Are you still there for us money? Uh, there we go. So, you know, to say to make those accusations, this is my cell phone and someone called. So, uh, all right. Maybe maybe start from where that person before that person called. So, for people, sorry. Oh, what? What was I saying? Oh, I said maybe start again from where you were before the person. No, but what was I saying? Oh well that's completely has lost me too because the the distraction the it's okay continue wherever you want. Yeah I was just saying that uh you know the the the war was waged on Iran because of Gaza though the the the war against Hezbollah was because of Gaza and all these countries uh in the region none of them broke off ties with the Israeli regime. None of them uh broke off political ties. None of them have broken off economic ties. some import gas, some transport uh oil, some export, some export oil. They're all doing business. And then Iran is uh making the sacrifices and is making enormous sacrifices and Yemen has made so many sacrifices and then to say that they they've sold out. The Iranians have told uh Hamas, the political wing in their discussions that they will uh pursue the issue of Gaza in in the negotiations and and Hamas is and and Palestine is a part of theou though not named because the war is taking place in Lebanon. But uh but we have to keep in mind that the ceasefire in Gaza was you know because whenever the Iranians say Gaza the Americans say well we have a ceasefire and everyone's endorsed it Erdogan and Cece and the king of Jordan Abdullah and all these leaders from the region and beyond they all went to Shamro and in Egypt and endorsed Trump ceasefire and praised him and and whitewashed his crimes and uh and u And none of them have complained since. Even though well over a thousand people have been murdered since then. Every day they're bombing the place and killing more people. Children, infants, school children every day. I don't see any of these governments say anything. It's only Iran paying a price yet uh uh you know I think some people are attacking Iran because um in order to cover up their own inaction. Al Jazzer Arabic did a show on Iran. Why is Iran like like why is it not including Gaza? I mean what is what has Gatar done except to fund Kushner and Witoff and Trump's Trump's sons and gift him an airplane and you know be a part of you give it air air base to the United land to for the United States to bomb Yemen and Iran and Syria and so on. I mean who are they to talk about Iran? But Al Jazzer does this in order to undermine the resistance in order to justify their own role as a proxy of the United States in all wars too. It's it's not even just regionally which is it's every war. It's Ukraine. it, you know, any any, you know, following the US line almost uh to the tea on so many critical questions and and ignoring voices that are challenging it which do exist and are becoming more and more uh you know prominent that and I just want to say one last thing because we only have about a minute left, but I wanted to say that um you know we just had in terms of that Russia uh possibly getting inspiration from Iran and and how Iran conducted uh its response to the USIsraeli aggression. Uh we're now still getting information about how bad this damage was uh that Iran inflicted on the US. And now the United States, as I covered yesterday, is considering moving their installations either further uh uh west, further away from the uh Iranian theater, as we might be able to call it, and uh maybe even underground, which is which is which I think is astounding. And so we already are having obviously the United States thinking about reducing legitimately reducing its presence not because they want to not because of morals or principles or anything but just because they have to because of what Iran did. And I think that in of itself has to be considered and and uh just understood better uh in order to not fall into this what I think is total folly which is um always wanting to m uh uh impose maximal demands on Iran when in fact everybody the resistance everybody who's paying attention especially the resistance knows that this is a long long long war where uh there's a lot of factors to take into account But professor Morandi, your final thoughts as we head out. Yeah, there's a long way to go and this is not over and it's not going to be finished through a few missiles and drones and uh everyone, you know, we and we shouldn't be easily influenced by uh empire propaganda. We shouldn't, you know, try to un you know uh unwittingly uh strengthen those narratives. Well, we should be more active, do our own bit. each of us to uh expose the Israeli regime further. The United States has finally come out and said it's genocide. We knew this for over two and a half years now, almost three years now. But in any case, we have to just keep pushing and pushing and and uh and we're getting there. The Israeli regime has no legitimacy in the eyes of so many people across the world. And now uh you know we saw what happened in New York and how uh in in Jews voted against Zionists uh in in in New York so many and now the Jew now the Jews of New York are anti-semite uh apparently from uh from what I'm reading uh it it just shows how you know this is this awakening uh against Zionism just like Muslims do not accept al-Qaeda and ISIS and the you know these techi groups uh we see increasingly Jews uh being very open in their opposition to Zionism and Christians opposed to Zionism and u you know we have to keep pushing everyone has to push and uh it's going to take a long time and it's going to be difficult and there are going to be many ups and downs but we're going to get there. Yeah. Yeah, and I want to thank uh everyone who viewed today. Uh put up the super chats. Thanks so much for those, everyone who moderated. And of course, anyone who came here. Person's X account is in the video description below where you can find his uh work and all the interviews and everything else he is doing. Uh hit that like button before you go. That helps boost the show and YouTube's algorithm. Tomorrow we have June 28th uh uh 1 p.m. Eastern time, we'll have KJ No on the show. Versa Mirandi, uh any any uh words uh of goodbye to our audience as we head out of here? No, just uh we should all pray for the people of Venezuela. Yeah. And one of my friends uh they've been forced to leave their home because their home is it's not clear if it's stable, if people can help them. I mean, we're sanctioned. We can't. we have you know but um and we have a war going on but uh we should pray for them and if we can help in any way or form I think uh it would be good time to do so. Yeah, we are seeing um despite what I believe is still a very strong uh collective uh uh preparedness and readiness by the Venezuelan people, the sanctions have taken their toll and it is it is a brutal cost that they've paid in this earthquake and and so or these earthquakes and their aftershocks. So definitely heed those words everyone. Try to find an organization. Try to find people who are legitimately helping because the United States right now is looking to consolidate. Yeah. Not through the empire power. Yeah. Be careful. They're trying to consolidate their influence in power over Venezuela through this uh disaster. Capitalism, disaster imperialism is very much a thing. But nonetheless, heed those words and uh definitely uh give them your thoughts and any support you can. All right, everybody. We're going to head out of