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Iran Refuses To Cede Control Of The Strait Of Hormuz
Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris
Jul 10, 2026

On July 9, millions of Iranians gathered in the holy city of Mashhad to bid a final farewell to their martyred Supreme Leader.

Dimitri Lascaris was there to report on the final burial of Imam Ali Khamenei.

In this report, Dimitri shares footage from the last day of the seven-day funeral and analyzes the violence that erupted this week in the all-important Strait of Hormuz.



Transcript

Good day. This is Demetri Lceras coming to you from Mashad, Iran on July 10th, 2026 for Reason to Resist. Yesterday was
the final day for the funeral of Iran's martyed Supreme Leader Ali Kamei. A little later in this report, I'll share
you the stunning footage of this remarkable final day. I've been in Iran for the entire period of the 7-day funeral. And like all other days I have
been here, yesterday's proceedings drew huge masses of people who expressed their grief, indignation, and defiance
at the United States and Israel. But before I share with you footage of yesterday's events, I want to talk to you about the ongoing US war of
aggression against this country. This week, after Iran targeted non-compliant commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz
using non-lethal force, the US bombed Iranian ports and bridges. In so doing, US forces killed more than a dozen
martyrs. The aggressor murdered at least three people in Iran's southwestern Kujastan province, a firefighter in an
airport in the southeastern city of Iranchar, and nine members of the Iranian military. Iranian state media
also reported explosions in several cities, including Busher, which houses Iran's nuclear power plant complex. And
apparently, although those air strikes did not hit the nuclear plant, they did strike nearby. Iran's military has
responded with dozens of strikes on US military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Jordan.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it carried out attacks on quote key infrastructure and facilities close quote at bases used by the criminal US
military in Aries Jan and Ali al-Salum in Kuwait, Ju and Shik Issa in Bahrain uh and also I believe Alu Daid in Qatar.
Most importantly perhaps, Iran fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan's Azarak military base. According to the IRGC in
a statement carried by state media yesterday, Jordan's armed forces said it had intercepted eight Iranian missiles
in the airspace after sirens sounded across the country, adding that falling shrapnel did not cause any casualties or
material damage. So assuming that Iran did in fact fire 10 ballistic missiles, that would mean that Jordan intercepted
80% of them. Well, I find that rather difficult to believe. And I'll tell you why. because uh former MIT professor Ted
Postol who is one of the leading weapons experts in the west uh and was an adviser to the Pentagon has done some uh
very interesting uh interviews uh about this subject about the ability of US air defense systems to intercept ballistic
3 minutesmissiles. uh he did a recent interview in particular on the Daniel Davis program. I think it was about three
weeks ago in which he explained why he has concluded that the Patriot milit uh air air defense system which is
essentially the best air defense system that the United States has and provides to its Arab vessels uh only intercepts about 2 to 3%
of ballistic missiles. It may be quite good when it comes to dealing with slowmoving drones or subsonic uh cruise
missiles. Perhaps even uh non-hypersonic uh missiles uh although uh possessing uh
supersonic speeds uh perhaps they can take out a significant proportion of those. But uh missiles that travel at
hypersonic speeds which is the velocities that these ballistic m missiles reach when they uh enter the atmosphere and hurdle towards the earth.
According to the postal 2 to 3% is probably the uh interception rate. So even if they had taken out one of these
10 missiles they would have been lucky to do that. that would have been an interception rate of 10% uh for you know four to five times uh
above the average interception rate according to the conclusions of professor postal and we also know by the
way that although fantastical claims were made throughout the Ramadan war about the uh proportion of Iranian ballistic missiles that were being
intercepted by the Gulf Arabitocracies uh that house these US military bases.
We know from the corporate media in the United States and satellite imagery that in fact there was enormous damage done to numer numerous of these bases
rendering uh in excess of 10 of them according to the western corporate media inoperable. So if these air defense
systems are nearly as successful as is claimed uh by countries like Jordan uh then uh you would not expect to see that
level of damage in uh US military bases in this region. Now, the IRGC says that
in Jordan, it targeted a US command and control facility. 10 ballistic missiles can do a hell of a lot of damage to a
facility of that nature. For the time being, we can't say here on Reason to Resist, how much damage was done, but
with time, we may well find out, particularly as satellite imagery emerges. And if we do find out, we'll certainly share that information with
you. Now, in its newsletter this morning, the New York Times published a commentary by New York Times staff
writer Kathine Benhold. Her commentary concerned the debate in Iran before those who want negotiations with the US
to continue and those who want them to end. As is customary in the corporate media, Benho describes those who want
negotiations to end as hardliners. and she claims that the hardliners in Iran constitute a minority, albeit a powerful
one. She also says that the hardliners quote prefer war close quote. Benhold
writes that the hardliners used the occasion of the Supreme Leader funeral this past week to physically attack government officials who have been
defending the ceasefire with the United States. On Monday, she says, uh, there was a particularly notable incident
when, according to her, a crowd tried to tackle President Masoud Pajeskian during a funeral procession while shouting,
quote, "Death to the appeaser." Close quote. And Benhold says, quote, "He swayed, looking dazed as security detail
guided him away." She goes on and writes, "Foreign Minister Abasaraki was struck with a rock as he was chased down an alley during the funeral. The
attackers waving flags cursed him and called for his death. Close quote. Now, I've not seen footage of these incidents
and cannot confirm whether these events actually occurred, but if they did occur, I wouldn't be surprised. Not
based on what I've seen and heard in the streets of Tan and Mashad all week. Uh, that being said, I take strong issue
with several aspects of Benhold's article. First of all, if it is in fact true that I rate Iranian citizens uh
threatened the president and the foreign minister in that way uh and I'm not suggesting that they were going to lynch them or anything like that. I have no
reason to believe that they intended to carry out any kind of a death threat or even cause them grievous bodily injury.
But just taking at face value what she said they did. If in fact they did that, it seems a little difficult to recognize
uh to I'm sorry reconcile with the narrative that uh the Iranian government is a brutally oppressive regime uh that is effectively dictatorial.
Would people behave this way in a country, ordinary citizens towards the president and the foreign minister, especially during an important a
critically important state event, uh if uh they were liable to be carted off to
prison and tortured or worse uh for offending the dignity of the president and the foreign minister in that manner.
And Ben Hull doesn't uh seem to grasp that there is an inconsistency between
what she recounts happened this week and uh the New York Times standard editorial line that the Iranian government is one
of the most repressive and dictatorial regimes on earth. Uh but there are other aspects of this with which I take greater exception. First of all, her use of the term hardliners.
You know, you aren't a hardliner because you believe that uh there is nothing to be
gained by negotiating with that psychopath, pathologically lying, narcissistic, megalomaniac
uh and genocidal Donald Trump. Uh that's just common sense. Why would anyone thinking rationally looking at the way
Donald Trump has behaved um believe that those uh negotiations are going to result in an agreement that Donald Trump
uh will respect and that will be uh in the interests of the Iranian people and the Iranian state. That's simply an
irrational belief. So, I, you know, I think a far more accurate term of the so-called hardliners is realists or I
would call them pragmatists. They're being practical. They're being realistic. They're looking at Donald Trump's behavior and they're saying this is a pointless exercise and if we do any
kind of a deal, he's going to use it to somehow disadvantage us even further than he's already done. Uh, but she characterizes them as hardliners, which
uh, you know, obviously carries a negative connotation. It suggests that these people are extremists, that they're inflexible, uh that they can't be reasoned with when the reality is that they're being all too reasonable.
They see the reality of what Donald Trump is. Uh and they are um you know, uh urging upon their government a policy
which takes into account that reality, namely that negotiations with this monster are a fool's errand and likely only to rel lead to further
disadvantages for the nation of Iran and its people. Now she goes on and she says that the hardliners constitute a
so-called hardliners constitute a minority. Uh a claim for which she provides zero evidence. you you that's a
pretty important claim to be making at this point in time uh when the negotiations between the United States
and uh Iran have broken down and this is a war that has potentially profound consequences for uh the global economy
and the US economy included. Um, so I would say that it's journalistically incumbent upon her to provide some kind
of evidence, something to back up the claim that these so-called hardliners constitute a minority. Now, I don't have polling evidence to provide to you, and
if I knew of any, I would I would cite it to you whether or not it is consistent with my own experience, but I can tell you what my own experience is
for what it's worth. and uh you know it is not anywhere close to uh you know it doesn't have anywhere close to the
evidentiary value of scientifically uh valid polls uh but nonetheless it's something and I can tell you that going
through the streets of Iran and interacting with people I saw enormous amounts of hostility towards uh the negotiation process and immense
skepticism. I heard this over and over again. I saw uh quite literally I mean when I add up all the people I saw uh
chanting against negotiations and carrying uh banners opposed to negotiations, it's probably in the tens of thousands and that's just what I saw
in the streets. Uh so uh I uh really question whether these people constitute a a minority. I think it's entirely
possible that a majority of Iranians think that it is uh it is contrary to the interest of the Iranian state to be
negotiating with this uh menacious psychopath. Uh, and as I say, that's simply logical. And my sense is that
most Iranians have common sense and they are rational people fundamentally. And if that is the case and they're paying attention, as I'm sure they are, to
Donald Trump's current behavior and his record, uh, the majority would be of the view uh, that these negotiations should be uh, brought to an end forth with and
perhaps that they should never have uh, begun with uh, or been undertaken to begin with. The third claim with which I
want to take exception in this Benhold uh piece of toilet paper is the claim that the so-called hardliners prefer
war. You know, I haven't met a single person in Iran of the many people I've met during my uh three trips uh to this
country across this country during the past 14 months who actually wants war.
Not a single one. Such people may exist, but if they were here in significant number and if the so-called hardliners with whom I've had extensive interaction
preferred war, then presumably I would have met at least a few of them by now.
But I've met none of them. What the pal what the Iranian people want, let's be very clear about this, Miss Benhold, they want the war to be brought to an
end as expeditiously as possible, but they want it to be ended permanently. I repeat, permanently. They don't want to
be turned into Lebanon or Syria or Libya that is in a constant state of vulnerability, a constant state of war,
a war which simply varies from time to time in intensity, but which is never ending and permanently infeebles the state. That's what they don't want. and
they understand perfectly well that after having kicked the asses of the Americans and the Israelis in the most recent war and in the June war of last
year, the uh Israelis and the Americans are opting for plan B. And plan B is this low inensity intermittent war which
doesn't cause catastrophic damage all at once but which over time gradually weakens the state and the nation to the point that they can no longer defend
defend themselves and there's a breakdown of a civil order and civilized life. Uh that is what the Americans and
the Israelis have in store through this negotiating process uh which is a complete fraud as is now clear as clear
as day and the Iranian people understand this perfectly well. So they don't think that this course of action, the one
being pursued, not all Iranians, but in my view probably a majority of them don't think that the course of action that has been pursued thus far uh by the
government is likely to lead to a permanent end in the war. What will lead to a permanent end to the war? In my view, it is exactly what I've been
saying for months. My view has been strengthened over time by uh the kinds of things we have witnessed this week.
the relentless violations of theou uh and various other ceasefire agreements by the United States and
Israel. What has to happen is that the Iran has to inflict such a penalty on the United States. Israel is really secondary in all of this because if the
United States wants the war to be ended permanently, it'll be ended permanently whether or not Israel wants that. So, it has to really inflict upon the United
States a penalty that is so severe that the next time it's tempted to attack Iran, it will decide not to do that
because the pain of doing so will simply be too great. And how can Iran inflict a penalty of that nature? By shutting down
the straight of Hormuz. You know, we just uh did a press conference with the uh Iranian parliament parliamentarian
Ibraham Izzi who is the chair of the parliament's national security commission. We published that this morning and uh we were allowed to ask him questions any questions we wanted.
there were no restrictions placed upon our questions and a lot of people uh in that room foreign journalists yourself uh your yours truly included expressed
skepticism about the wisdom of pursuing these negotiations any further and uh one question which I asked it's at the
very beginning of the uh uh the video we published this morning or near the beginning was in light of the uh many
violations of theou uh by uh the Trump regime uh and in particular the fact that it has now reimposed sanctions on
the sale of Iranian oil. Uh what are the benefits to Iran of continuing to comply with theou and isn't it in fact uh the
more logical approach to close the straight of Hormuz again uh to impose maximum pressure on the United States
economy and through it the government of the United States. Uh and I commend to you if you want to see the answer that I got back from Mr. Aizi that you watch
this. Another person also asked in this same video that we've published whether uh the United States uh I'm sorry, Iran
entered into theou too early because it was on the cusp of causing serious harm to the United States economy just as the
United States by the way has been doing to the Iranian economy for decades. Uh and so again uh the answer to that
question may interest you and if you want to hear what Mr. Zezy had to say. I recommend that you watch uh the video of the press conference which we published
this morning. But in any case, uh the point here is uh I don't believe and I suspect that a great many Iranians don't
believe that the Iranian government has so far gone far enough to establish real deterrence. That's what they want. They
want real deterrence so that the war is brought to a permanent end and uh they're not uh indefinitely subjected uh
to the suffering the interminable suffering of an inter intermittent low inensity war. Uh so that again Miss
Benhold uh if you happen to be listening uh to uh my comments today that's what the Adanian people want. uh your racist
notion that there are some wildeyed savages who love war or that any segment of the Iranian society is like that
really uh is a disgrace. Uh like all human beings, they desire peace overwhelmingly. And if there are any
people in this country uh who actually do prefer war, I assure you that they are a tiny minority.
Now, um I want to uh close out uh with a couple of other points uh about uh what
has happened over the last couple of days. Uh we will be heading back to uh Thran uh later this evening uh by train.
It's a 12-h hour train ride. Uh we got here by train uh about 3 days ago. Our um uh voyage back to Thran was
complicated by the fact that the uh the Trump regime bombed bridges uh railway
bridges connecting Thran uh to Mashad and in fact we passed over one of these bridges on our way here. Uh now we were
therefore uncertain whether we were going to be able to take the train back to Thran and I do need to go back for one day before uh leaving the country
and returning to Canada. Um but uh we are told that uh the government seems to have found a solution quickly dealing
with the problem created by uh the bombing of this civilian infrastructure.
By the way, this railroad is very important. It's strategically important to Iran because it connects uh Iran, I
understand, to China uh and also to Russia. So, uh that will tell you
something about uh the motivation of the United States for bombing this civilian infrastructure. Um and of course, there's the additional motivation it may
have had uh that people were traveling from the capital to Mashad for the final day of the Supreme Leader's uh funeral.
uh but I suspect the uh main motivation was to impede uh economic relations between uh the Islamic Republic of Iran
and its uh its partners uh China and Russia.
Now uh in the days ahead I guess we'll find out uh whether uh the Iranian government has gotten the message which
I think a great many of its citizens tried to convey during the uh past week uh as to the way they feel about
negotiations with the uh sociopath in the White House. Uh with that uh let's turn to the footage of the final day of
the Supreme Leader's funeral which took place yesterday. Uh I'll just mention briefly uh you'll see as uh this uh
report on the ground report yesterday unfolds that we had expected that the coffin of the the coffins of the martyrs
would be uh brought down one of the main boulevards leading to the uh Imam Breza shrine where the martyr Ali Kamei was
finally laid to rest last night. But in fact uh they were not brought down to the main bullet through the main boulevards and uh we were not able to
view at the end of the day uh the uh the the delivery of the coffins to the shrine. Uh we learned that they had
arrived uh by video feed on Iranian state media. Uh but you will see uh in the video I'm about to show you the
extraordinary uh and uh impressive uh gathering of masses of people uh both inside and
around the ImmA shrine as they waited uh for uh the arrival of the body of their
beloved and martyed leader. And at the very end of this uh clip that I'm about to show you from last night's uh events,
you will hear uh a gigantic throng of mourners chanting in unison. And the words that they chanted uh were quite
powerful. They were all these armies have come for the love of their leader.
This is Dimmitri Lceris coming to you on July 9th, 2026 from Mashad, Iran. This
is the site of the last day of the 7-day program for the funeral of the martyed
supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khani. We have been here in the country every step of the way in the streets uh at the
mosques where mourers gathered to uh pay their respects and to grieve and also to express their indignation. And all of it
will culminate in a few hours time at the Imam Bza shrine uh which is uh
directly in front of me in a distance of a couple hundred meters. But for the time being, I want to show you what is behind me. That is the Imm Resa
Boulevard. And as you can see, it is absolutely jam-packed with mourners as
far as the eye can see. And uh the coffin of the supreme leader along with the coffins of his slain family members,
his martyed family members are we understand somewhere down that absolutely
jam-packed boulevard. Uh and they should have arrived by now at the shrine. uh but because of the great mass of people
who have assembled there waiting for the coffins to arrive uh their arrival has been much delayed and we are going to
share with you uh in a few moments footage of what uh I just saw and experienced down in the streets uh both
on Imamza Boulevard and on our way from our hotel which is uh near the main entrance to this gigantic shrine
complex. Uh, but I'm going to sharp I'm going to start by showing you uh what I can see right now looking in front of me uh at the shrine.
I'm going to go
Are you going to stay here?
Hallelujah. Jesus.
Heat. Heat.
So, we've now left that uh very tall hotel where we had this magnificent view of Imam Resza Boulevard
and the Imam Resza Shrine. And we're back down in the streets below.
We uh have learned that in fact the coffin burying the body of the supreme
leader is not going to uh be delivered via Imam Resa Boulevard uh but rather
another uh avenue that passes directly in front of the hotel we're staying which is a uh smaller hotel an eighth
floor hotel and uh that news by the way is has been spread publicly so uh you You can see that uh there are a lot of
people walking in the direction of our hotel which is about a couple hundred meters away. Uh and we plan to go onto
the rooftop of our hotel so that we can see the uh coffin of the martyed supreme leader uh
go by uh as uh it enters the shrine complex.
More water to keep us cool.
foreign
speech.
That's Industry
man omnico
mico Many manufacturing.
I didn't know you have any work.
Nothing.
You're going to
We are going to the
I cannot
tell
All your nice hair draws up
spaghetti.
I love it.
Long time.
We've now returned to our hotel and are still waiting for the coffin of the
martyrd supreme leader and those of his slain family members to
enter the shrine and we expect that's going to happen shortly.

US Strikes BACKFIRE as 43 MILLION Iranians Declare War | Larry Johnson & Ray McGovern
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 3 hours ago #iran #iranwar #trump

Former CIA Analysts Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern discuss day three of renewed war as Iran an attack on the funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Kuwait & Bahrain attempt strikes on Iran with US support.



Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. As you can see, I'm joined by Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern returning back to the show. First, let's get to the news. So,
uh, yesterday was the final day of the funeral for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamei and his family uh, in Mashad,
Iran. During this time, there was a reported terror incident that occurred.
A few Iranians were killed I believe from the security forces uh but no further attacks came and there was
nothing that came of it at the funeral itself. But what did happen at the funeral is that 43 million Iranians
ended up attending what was 6 days of ceremony with uh many noting that and of
course Israel making up stories about uh Iran wanting to assassinate Trump. But there were chants of we are the
followers of Imam Hami and we seek revenge. Now uh gentlemen Donald Trump
today said after two days of strikes that now Iran is the one begging him to
come to the table and talk and that the United States has agreed to do so but that the ceasefire is over. Iran has
denied these claims entirely, saying they're just not true and there will be no talks until commitments are
fulfilled. Uh Larry, we're heading into the weekend. There are destroyers uh there's aircraft carrier carriers lining up getting closer to Iranian shores.
Threats of a renewed blockade. What do you make of of what's happened over the last , especially the last 24 as
uh uh the United States said they chose diplomacy over strikes again?
United States said it chose diplomacy over strikes.
That's what it said. That's what it said that they are talking to the Qatar mediators that they're the the mediators in the background, but the ceasefire is
over says Trump. [snorts] Yeah, the a little little bit of a contradiction in there. Uh look, this was th this was all a staged
uh provocation by the United States uh when it started let's see we're Friday.
So it started on Tuesday when they put tried to put the four ships, five ships through the straight of Hormuz without
doing following the uh Persian Gulf straight authority guidelines pro protocols put out by Iran and according
to theou the only country in the world in the universe
is that's the obligation the responsibility uh to ensure safe passage passage of vessels through the strait is
Iran. United States signed off on that and in in response or in tandem with the
US acknowledging Iran's primacy in the straight of Hermuz, the Iranians issued
those protocols and the protocols stipulated that any ship wanting to pass the straight of Hermuz must submit an
they've got a website an online application uh stipulating name of captain, name of ship, ownership of
ship, destination, of ship cargo on board ship and the crew and you know
basically Iran is using this as a we'll call it a backdoor embargo. Anything o
owned or associated with Israel in any shape form uh would be denied so as to shut Israel down. Everybody else though
can come on through. Well, instead of uh going along with that uh protocol, the United States encouraged even the Saudis
and Qataris, tell the Iranians to screw off. We're going to do it on our own.
They went through and in in the protocols, it it states very clearly that ships that do not comply with the
PGSA protocols will be denied passage and or subject to use of force. No
surprise there. Iran did exactly what it said in the protocols. They didn't violate any law. They didn't violate any
uh clause within theou. At no point in theou did the United States say Iran, you cannot determine who go gets to use
the straight of authority. That's that's we will not accept that. No, didn't say that. They didn't say that if if you try
to enforce your uh your control that we're going to attack you. Didn't say that. But in fact, the United States in
violation of the first paragraph of the of theou attacked, launched combat operations against Iran. Iran's
retaliated. Uh they so they had two rounds of this. Iran retaliated, then the US retaliated, then the Iranians
retaliated to the US retaliation. Uh, and since then I haven't seen any additional evidence that the United
States is going to escalate, fire back, because if they fire back, Iran's going to escalate. Um, they've already in that
second round, Iran went from hitting bases in Kuwait and Bahrain to also going after bases at the US base at
Aluded uh in in Qatar and the Jordanian base at Mwafik Alti. So, you know, we're
I I do know that Pakistan with Qatar has been busy behind the scenes trying to salvage talks trying to get the Iranians
and the United States back together in Islamabad. They they were trying to do it for tomorrow. That hasn't come off.
Maybe by Monday. We'll see. I'm I personally I I think uh the Iranians would be advised walk away from this.
It's done. The United States is not a reliable negotiating partner.
Well, Rey, we had 43 million Iranians attend that the funeral of Ayat Allemeni and uh that is quite the number given
the country is 90 million and it came as the United States was striking their country. But what do you make of these
simultaneous developments and and what's been going on the last few days?
Good question. Um, I'm amazed that uh when Trump was told about this pour out,
he was amazed and he's quoted as saying, "I I thought they were all against the government. [laughter]
My god, you know, I mean, I wish that were funny." Anyhow, if Mossad told Trump a couple months ago that there was
going to be a public insurrection in Iran because the people hated their government, well, I mean, they may have hated, some of them may have hat, but
they hate it now. Uh, if that if that number is right, 43 million is a lot of people. Uh, Trump is lying again. uh
when he says to the Iranians are really pressing him to re restart the negotiations. I mean uh fool me once,
fool me twice, how many times has he said that and it's not been true. So like Larry, I don't think the Iran
Iranians are going to do anything with respect to real negotiations until until
the uh the hostilities really stop. Now, if I'm correct, then Trump has said, "Okay, we're going to stop now and then
we're going to negotiate. I mean, there's what is there to negotiate?" The main point, in my view, is something
that Larry has been harping on for two weeks now, and that is Well, it's not only Larry, it's his good friend Donald
Trump. Right [laughter] now, wait a second. What What did I do to you? Huh?
Well, no, no. I'm saying that after you pointed out, Donald Trump himself said, "We're running out of oil. My god, we're
running out of oil. We got to get that straight open." That's why I agreed to the Mo. Yeah.
[laughter]
Well, and that's sort of complicated. I think I understand it from Larry's various explanations, but it is the case
that the US desperately needs that so that they could get some Saudi and other crude in there to to to make the
kind of jet fuel and uh the kind of stuff that powers trucks and iron and buses and stuff. So, if that's still the
case, well, Trump has just tried a couple more escalations, but now he's going to talk. Now he's going to
persuade the Iranians to open the straight. I don't think so. So, it's a real kind of corner he's backed himself
into. And God knows what he's going to do. Trump probably doesn't even know either.
Yeah. And uh Larry, I wanted to bring this up. Uh as there were a bit of a
pause. I mean, there were some reports that Kuwait and Bahrain, I didn't see these verified, uh, supposedly tried to strike Iran with US intel support.
Nonetheless, this was what came out yesterday that Israel has told the United States that uh, conveniently,
Iran is seeking a fresh plot to assassinate Donald Trump. And this came as CNN was reporting a actively that the
United States is trying to do a strike pause pattern, meaning that behind the scenes, the United States is trying to
talk to the Iranians uh with US striking and then pausing to avoid escalation and
let diplomacy work. This is according to uh CNN. Uh Larry, help us make sense of
that. This appears to be a real troubling pattern where the United States escalates can't escalate further
without massive damage, catastrophe, crisis, and then pretends or uh maybe I don't even know if they believe they're
pretending to engage back into talks often citing that this is leverage. Uh what how do you uh help the audience
understand this? Okay, there's several loose threads here and I'll see if I can weave them together to resemble something coherent.
Number one, uh, now two weeks ago, Pete Hexth issued an order to start the withdrawal of US forces from the region.
And in fact, that withdrawal is underway. It's slow. Uh, it's it's not a it's not a speedy withdrawal. It was described to me it's being done in
waves, but we saw last week that the B-52s that were based in England, they returned uh to Konis or continental
United States and that number of F15, I think it was 12 that
were based in Jordan flew back to England, headed back to the United States. So that's you got that on the one hand.
Also, u going back to June 17th, the United States military deactivated what
are called cats. And I'm not talking about furry animals on four paws and a tail. Uh the CAT is a crisis action
team. This is uh or it could also be called a task force. Um, and these are
these are stood up in advance of military operations. The the attack that took place on the 28th of February by
the United States was preceded 7 days earlier by the establishment of cats at
the at the Pentagon in the na adjacent to the National Military Command Center at the operations center at Sentcom at
McDell Air Force Base uh at JOC at their uh you know they've got a couple of different operation centers there and so
these cats are involved with issuing orders responding to requests from field commanders, making sure that resources
are in place, etc. Well, once you take those cats down, you lose that capability. Or in other words, the
military is not on a combat footing. Uh, and they've been operating [clears throat] since about June 17th,
uh, 8 to 5 Monday through Friday, banker hours. I specifically asked a couple of friends who still one one recently
retired, one still active duty if the cats have been reestablished. No, across you know they they have not been
reestablished. So that that right there limits what the United States is going to do. Uh I was also told that uh the
strikes that have been carried out in the Persian Gulf are nothing compared to what we were doing in the first 40 days
of the war with Iran. So even though the press is hyping it and it's getting, you know, sitcoms bragging about the, you
know, destroying Iran, uh it's not as serious as it is be as is being
presented. So you've got that on the one hand. On the other hand, uh Iran is not
messing around. Every time they're hit, they respond and they escalate each response. At the same time, they're
trying to keep it in check. Now, Iran is under a lot of pressure from Pakistan and China to get back to the negotiating
table. But Iran's saying, "How the hell do we do that?" The United States has broken every single paragraph of theou.
And until such time as they comply with theou, we're not going to go back with them. In fact, the Iran just issued a denial
there. It was being leaked that there are upcoming talks with the US and and Iran in Switzerland and according to Fars and Iran said nope, not doing that.
So I I think Iran's going to they're going to hold out for some uh concessions and in a way they have the
United States over a barrel. And I don't I don't want to get too technical here, but the but the bottom line is oil is
not oil. And the high sulfur oil is what the United States imports. United States
does not produce enough high sulfur oil to uh the which is what 70% of our
refineries need and that high sulfur oil is what is used to produce diesel and
aviation fuel. So with the cut off that what took place the cut off on the 28th of February
it didn't the full impact of that cut off did not become apparent to the United States or it wasn't being felt
until April 11th uh roughly because it was 40 days uh that if you had a a full
oil tanker that had just left the straight of Hormuz on the 28th of February would have taken them 40 days to get to Houston or to Louisiana.
This is why Energy Secretary Miller on the 11th of March issued an order to start drawing
down the strategic petroleum reserve at a rate of 1.4 million barrels per day.
And what they were drawing down was the sour crude, not the sweet. Because United States makes we got all the sweet
crude we want. The problem is the it's more for the oil industry and I know I'm I should tell Ray to sit down. I don't
want to shock him but but the oil industry found it more profitable to have these expensive refineries that
process sour crude. And so therefore they built more of those instead of the sweet crude which we have an abundance
of now. You could actually produce diesel and and aviation fuel from sweet crude, but you have to have the right kinds of refineries. We don't have them.
So, right now, the United States is facing that the the reserves that's drawing out of the SPR. It's going to run dry here. Some have said like
tomorrow, July 11th. Some have said no, it'll be mid mid August. But this is what Donald Trump was talking about when he was said we're going to run out of
oil in four weeks. So they need the US needs the straight of Hormuz open and it
ain't at least as far as oil the the high sulfur oil coming to the United States.
Yeah, and Larry, uh I mean uh those are great points, Rey. The uh you know uh
the the reasoning for the strikes by the United States was all about the Straight War moves and was all about supposedly the tankers being hit and uh but the end
result ended up being that fewer tankers were moving through the war actually zero from the so-called Omani corridor.
What do you make of the United States's approach then uh in this uh restart?
It's it's very interesting that CNN is now reporting that US officials are saying this is a uh uh strike pause
strategy almost to uh negotiations. Did you say strategy?
[laughter]
Yeah.
What does that mean? [clears throat] there has been no strategy.
Uh in charge is a commanderin-chief and a president who's who's not really well.
Uh we see that in all kinds of manifestations.
Uh that's why not only the Iranians but the Russians and Chinese, everybody else
tries to not provoke them. Uh now in this case the Iranians have all the
cards. Um they will respond to provocations of a limited nature. Uh but
they're not going to uh they're not going to do anything that will make sure that Trump goes off halfcocked. Now he's
halfcocked already. Fullcocked I suppose is what I should say. Uh and then of course there is the Israel factor which
cannot be overlooked in in a discussion like this. We have defense minister
[clears throat]
um Kats saying we're not we're not going to leave Lebanon. Uh that was number one. That was the first little clause of
the uh memorandum of mis memorandum of understanding. All right. uh two sentences,
one country mentioned three times in those two sentences, Lebanon.
So, it's hard for Westerners to get through their Iranians care about other
Muslims, other people who are occupied by Israel. Andu
I would say it is it's sort of a miracle in our in our inability to to see that
there is such a thing as principle or um sort of sort of a a kind of a look at
things that doesn't center exclusively on one country. Uh but we have to start accepting that and the Israelis are the
fly in the ointment. Did the Israelis tell Trump that he was on number one on the assassination list? Well, I don't know who else could have. Maybe Samoa.
Of course, they told him. Did Trump believe it? I mean, he's saying, "Of course I'm number I'm not only number
one on the Israeli on the Iran Iranian assassination lists. I'm [clears throat] number one on Tik Tok. Everybody knows
that. I'm number one on Tik Tok. I'm number one on all kinds of things. How do you deal with a guy like that with
kid gloves? But you have to show as the Iranians have done uh that you mean business and that you're not going to
give up. 43 million. Well, if Trump was really surprised that he should not have been surprised. Getting back to
strategy, there ain't no strategy. And you know, if you look at all the kinds of things that Trump has done there and
in with respect to Ukraine, I mean, there are no weapons left for God's sake. No tomahawks, no Patriot missiles
in Ukraine. Ukraine is defenseless from an air. No, I mean, was there planning on this?
I don't know what the hell those generals do uh other than, you know, prepare for their next job with General
Dynamics or or Boeing or whatever. But if they hadn't told Trump before, if they hadn't said, "Sir, we're going to
run out of uh we're going to run out of weaponry in two weeks." He would have said probably, "Two [laughter] weeks?
Mossad just told me on a tube that they'll be finished in days. we'll just decapitate uh the supreme leader and
everybody will rise up. These people who would hate hate the supreme leader and oh it didn't turn out that way, did it?
So all I'm saying here is my god no strategy and no predictability
but the cards happen to be in Iran's hands and they have the support of
Russia and China and increasingly other key countries in the world that it's
going to go kind of gradually here to exploit their advantage. They're not going to go off halfcock unless they're really provoked into doing that.
Yeah. And uh Larry, I wanted to ask you about about this. There was reports that Iran was uh amassing special forces
units near the Iraqi Kurd uh border, Kurdistan border. Uh there has been of course military activities there for
quite a long time throughout this war uh where Iran has been hitting these forces. uh some rumors that the US and
Israel may be trying to activate them in some kind of invasion scheme, especially since the last time we spoke, I asked you about whether these attacks were
some uh cockami scheme to uh uh to eventually take some kind of island. And
then uh I'm wondering what you think the role then I know the United States has been looking for force for a long time uh ever since before the February 28th
strikes to cause instability inside of Iran. Uh what do you make of these reports about the Iranian uh special
forces uh amassing at the border against the Kurds?
Yeah. No, I'm sure it's I'm sure it's accurate. United States is and Britain had been working, you know, CIA, MI6
have been working with the Kurds, promoting them and arming them, equipping them, training them to go in and conduct an operation inside Iran for
the express purpose of, you know, destabilizing Iran. But the Iranians are aware of it and they and that's one of the reasons they've been bombing Kurdish
positions and frankly the Kurds don't have enough forces to be able to penetrate and do do any kind of significant damage. So it's just you
know it's a full Zaron as far as you know there there is no viable ground option for the United States. U if if we
if we dane to figure you know number one how how are you going to get troops onto Car Island?
It's not going to be through a US Navy landing craft um because that'll get blown out of the water before it even gets up that far north in in the Persian
Gulf. So that means you have to drop them in by parachute or you drop them in
uh you fly them in. Well, how many how many troops you going to put in there?
You know, to secure Car Island, you'd probably need about 2,000. And given that a C130 can only take carry 90 uh
soldiers with full combat loads ready to jump out of a plane, just do the math.
Uh you're going to need over 22 23 C130s or you know or if they you know they
come up with um you know a C141 which you know has more capacity but not a lot more. You're still dealing with a lot of
airplanes and that's just what they jump in with. Then how do you resupply? And all all of this assumes that Iran's
going to do nothing. They'll sit there and watch this. Won't they won't fire a drone. They won't fire a missile.
Nonsense. And doing it right now in the summer. Uh you know, I've been there. I would look I haven't been there in July
uh and and August or or or June, but I was there in May of 2026.
And if the choice was going to gutter or hell, you'd prefer hell because their idea you might at least find a cool spot
to be tortured in. Uh it was [laughter] I mean it was blistering. It's pizza oven hot out there. Well, when you get
that kind of heat, uh you're going to get um you know people dehydrated. So, and how do you keep them resupplied? No,
this is just this is madness. Absolute madness. But uh you you know before before we wrap up today I do want to
comment on this so-called assassination plot against Trump because th this is
all this has been staged jenned up uh by the CIA by DEA with the full collaboration of Department of Justice.
Uh you know I'll come back and explain that but you know I want to give Ry a chance to comment.
Yeah, Ray to you your comments.
Well, uh I've just been thinking about um the Kurds and how they've always been the pawns of history. They want independence. They deserve independence.
They were deprived of having independence a century ago or so. And uh the result
is that any opportunity that presents itself that might have a chance of offering them independence, they seize
on it. Uh it's not going to work. And Larry is quite right. Uh it makes good sense for the Iranians to put some
troops up there near the Kurdish area just so they don't get any any uh any ideas.
But the whole notion that Iran is going to give up is what what the Germans would call a vanzin. It's it's sort of a
mild milder form of felt which you're not really allowed to say in Germany.
Felix means crazy. I mean like really crazy like you your your your head is
turned around 180° not 360° as an say
but 180°. Okay. Now, Vansen is just complete foolishness. Okay. So,
everybody's looking on at Trump and I would just read over it again that uh Trump not only has uh no predictability
to him, but he's got a bunch of um sickopants uh who say, "Oh, well, we're worried
about running out of ammunition, but oh, you saw you could rely on Mossad and the Israelis, and it's only going to be a
little bit." What does the CIA say about that? Oh, there is no CIA here at the table.
Uh, what about the National Intelligence D? Oh, no, she's fired. So, all right, let's go. Worth trying. So, it's really
crazy. And the same thing obtains, of course, with respect to to to Ukraine.
as though it's a rudderless kind of ship and uh the leaders of other countries
Iran, Russia, China have to be quite aware that this ruleless ship could do a
lot of damage if it's not contained, if it's not treated in a gingerly fashion.
And so I come back to that notion that uh the US is losing. But since the person in charge is not reliable, is
mercurial, changes his mind, you know, every day or maybe every hour, they got to be really careful. This this means a lot in the Ukraine situation.
Yeah. Well, Larry, back to you about the uh where you wanted to continue.
Well, yeah. So, this assassination plot, so let me take you back. I wrote about this uh back in November of 2024.
And so Department of [clears throat] Justice put out this thing said, "Oh, Far Farhad Shakiri 51 of Iran. He tried
to organize an assassination plot of Jews, but this was all tied into, you know, the attempted assassination of of
Trump." Well, what we learned was Shakiri uh came to the United States as like an eight-year-old child. Uh then he got uh jammed up in a robbery charge.
Did 14 years in prison in New York, made some friends while in prison,
gets out and is deported. We don't know initially his place of deport, but next time he shows up, he's in Sri Lanka.
And what's he doing in Sri Lanka? Well, he's trying to p move a load of heroin. And the Sri Lankan police arrest him.
And then what happens next? He gets released.
What you you know, did he pay off the police? No. What happened? DEA went in and made him an offer he
couldn't refuse. They say, "Hey, Sha, here's here's the deal, buddy. you start working for Team America and you work
with us and our our partners here, the CIA, and uh you'll be taken care of.
Plus, you're not going to go you're not going to go to Jo to jail and get a boyfriend named Bubba. So, he said, "Hey, sounds like a great idea. I don't
want to go back." So, next thing you know, he shows up in Iran and gets a job as an as an oil worker. you know, why
does an Afghan go to Iran just, you know, because I guess better opportunities.
Um, and then he says he claims that Iranian intelligence officers, uh, they get they
get in touch with him and say, IRGC members, they want him to put together
an assassination plot in the United States. So, what does he do? Uh well he calls he calls up two of his former
salemates uh Carlile Rivera who is known as Pop 49year-old Brooklyn New Yorker and a guy named
Jonathan Lo Halt 36 of Staten Island and basically recruits him hey we got this guy we want to get him killed and you
know offer to pass money this is entirely a setup this was entirely to create a narrative and now Israel at a
time when they need the United States to continue the war with Iran are trying to create the same narrative.
Yeah. And I want to uh show you Ry Trump's response to this. I won't play the video, but he says he left
instructions should Iran assassinate him that uh he said that he would uh bomb
them uh to hell in a way that has never been seen before. That was the instructions he had left. That's the uh
it it's you know it seems almost I I don't even know how what to how what word to put behind it in terms of why uh
the United States would be talking like this now. But your thoughts?
Well, it's kind of banal and purile. Um uh you know what are we going to do?
Nukem? Well, I mean, I wish I could say that's ridiculous, but no one can say anything is ridiculous when you're talking about Trump.
Um, and you know, that's why a lot of us are on tent hooks. I mean, it makes no sense, but it made no sense to attack
Iran for God's sake. And if Trump were so easily persuaded to do that by the
Israelis and their, as Joe Kent says, their acolytes in Washington, what might
he be tempted or encouraged to do? Now, there's one other aspect that I'd like to raise just to learn a little bit from
you all. I just saw a report that Mask, the uh big Danish uh transportation
agency which runs all these great big boats, ships and stuff that they're going through the Suez Canal uh to
deliver stuff through the Bob El Mand straight through the Red Sea up until I
s I assume Israel or whatever. Okay, now that's the next challenge. What will the
hooties who pretty much control the Bob Elman straight? What are they going to do? They say, "Oh, mask, please. You're
Danish. Oh, Danish. Danish is we love Danish. So, come on in here." I don't think so. So, here's the next choke
point, I think. Will will they be allowed in to resupply Israel and and others uh with desperately needed oil
and other other goods? Um what do you think, Larry? Uh I that gives pause that
would be one way that uh that this thing could flare up once again in a different spot, but just as powerfully. Well,
yeah, Iran has already mentioned that uh if the United States continues attacks, it's next to options on its uh let's
call it Chinese menu of responses includes having the Houthi shut down the Babel Mandab Strait and then also withdrawing
from the NPT, the non-prololiferation treaty. But did I hear you right? This did they say the ship was going to go
through the Panama Canal and then through No, they I'm sorry. If I said Panama, I meant Suez.
Oh, the Suez. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh if they're coming through Suez to go through uh the Babel Mandab. Um Yeah.
With with a What was their final destination? Do we know?
Uh it was not not specified in what I saw report. It was just Yeah. So, so the um the the big concern
would for the Saudis would be it I think the the port's called Yamboo that's on
the Red Sea and the uh if if the Houthis decide to start attacking Yamboo and
shutting that down then that again that shuts down a major source of oil coming out into the still trickling onto the
world stage. I think some of that's been coming out of Saudi and making its way to Europe uh keeping you know sort of
keeping them afloat. But u you know it is the Iranians made it very clear they're they are prepared to go all the
way to get the straight of uh the Red Sea shut down close the Mandab Bob
Mandab and also make sure that no ships go through the Suez Canal.
Yeah. And uh there's also reports too that uh Iran's defense ministry has said that they are also going to uh let's not
forget about Israel that Israel if these attacks continue that Israel will once again become a target of Iranian retaliation.
Um I wanted to play actually uh because Rey you mentioned the NATO summit and uh
one of the interesting things that came out of the NATO summit there was a lot and and Ray you can comment um first
here uh this is what Donald Trump so he uh make went out of his way Trump did to meet with Golani or Alshara whatever we
choose to call him by [laughter] um he went out of his way to have a meeting with him, you know, between both
sides. And this is what he said during the meeting that has been raising eyebrows.
No president's done as much for Israel as I have. Nobody even close. If you look at I mean, just look at all the things with Jerusalem, all the different
things that we've done. [snorts] Um the Golan Heights, I did things nobody has ever done anything for Israel like me.
And we made tremendous progress. And we're going to we've made a lot of progress with Iran, too. Wiped out their
military, but they should have been done 47 years ago.
So, Trump evoked the golden colon heights uh right in Golani's face as if
Golani actually cares. But, uh, nonetheless, it was seen as an a bitter humiliation or an utter humiliation by
those observing who know anything about the situation with regard to the region.
Uh let uh uh Rey, your first comments on on the NATO summit in general in this uh development in particular. [snorts]
Well, as you point out, it was highly disrespectful of Trump to be talking about Israel see or giving them the
golden heights again. The Goolan Heights part of Syria were occupied by Israel 1967.
Okay.
June. In November, the UN Security Council unanimously resolution 242 said Israel had to withdraw the occupied territories 1967.
So the history should not be ignored here. Uh do resistance forces have the
right uh to fight against occupation forces? Yes, they do under international
law. Do they have the right to use weaponry and arms? Yes, they do under international law. So, the Israelis are
on the back foot here. That's the background. And all the stuff about Golani, the head chopper, now with
really neatly polished black shoes like the rest of them. I mean, give me a break. This is sort of like theater and it's not funny.
Yeah. And uh Trump said that he will be taking Syria off of the state sponsored terror list. I guess because Syria is
not a state sponsor of terror. It is its state is [laughter] actually terrorist entity. Now I hate to joke about it like
that but because there are such serious consequences to this but nonetheless sometimes you have to laugh. Uh Larry, your uh your thoughts on the NATO summit in general as well.
I think the summit was a disaster. Um Trump uh reiterated his claim over
Greenland. Uh insulted Spain and insulted uh Italy. Uh I I I would say he
insulted the UK under Starmer, but Starmer himself is just personally insulting and revuls repulsive. So I'll
give I'll give Trump a pass on that. Um but uh you know he promised that uh Ukraine they're going to give Ukraine the let them build the Patriot missile.
[laughter]
Yeah. We we've got like you know what was the number I read? 40 maybe it was 20 but 40 different subcontractors each
have a piece of that action of putting together the Patriot missile and which is why it takes an actually from start
to finish about two years per missile to get one built. uh not to mention the reliance on uh rare earth minerals pro
that China is no longer providing or has put a put a restriction on w with respect to um exports to the United
States and for use in uh military equipment. So, you know, they um they
really didn't agree to any course of action uh other than Europe continues to double down on its desire to go to war
with Russia. And you know, Russia has, you know, I think we've seen some a decisive shift at least in the language
in the last week that Ditra Pesco twice has basically said uh the the special
military operation is over. We're now at war.
and that Russia is approaching this I think going to be approaching this entire endeavor in a much more different
way that uh while they're they continue to say we remain open to negotiations but uh they're not hearing any kind of
consiliatory tone coming out of anyone in Europe.
Yeah. In your thoughts too, Ray, about the NATO summit in general, uh what do you what did you make of it? No, I agree
with Larry and uh you know in the old crumblinologist tradition, you look at what they said
last year. Uh particularly what did they say about article five of the NATO
treaty which is you know one is attacked the other ones are supposed to come to to their aid. Uh well they said exactly
the same thing this year as last year after Trump said we're out of here. We're not we're not buying any missiles.
We're not going to sell you any missiles, Ukraine. We'll sell them to the Europeans at a little markup and they can give them so they don't have
any money to buy the missile. Actually, we don't have any extra missiles in our inventory, so we can't Well, but but
later, you know, it's really sort of a a comic show, but there were some interesting things over the last couple
of week. Larry is right about the pressure that Putin is under now with respect to getting this damn thing over
in Ukraine. And there were two manifestations of this. Actually, Larry mentioned Peskoff, the presidential
spokesman. Uh, Pasco was talking about whether article 5 might, this was in a
an interview with a Swiss uh outlet, whether article 5 applies or not. And he sort of dismissed, nobody's going to apply article 5 anymore.
What?
Okay. Then there's this other thing where um Margarita Simuan, the head of RT,
who has been head of RT for 21 years now by Putin for her reporting in the
Chetchia uh uprising and so forth. She's no dumb.
She's she's pretty smart. She speaks English. She spent a year in high school in New Hampshire, I think it was.
Anyhow, she's asked about, "Well, you're saying that uh maybe the president should more forcefully reply to these
drone attacks and so forth. When do you think it should reply?" And she says, "Shut up.
Yesterday." [laughter] Okay. So these are these are PR messages
that show that even Putin's closest advisors are saying hey Vladimir for God's sake you should have replied
yesterday and you know the NATO treaty forgot about it we don't have to worry about it my my take on this really is
that Putin has a lot of hards that cards that he hasn't played okay Ukraine has no defense defense against air attack.
My god, the patriots are all gone.
Zinski has complained. We have no patriots. When the Russians hit us two nights ago, they all got through. Why?
Because those damn Europeans are so stingy. They won't give us any of their patriots. And of course, the US doesn't have any to give because [laughter] so
here we go again strategy and and you know the necessary wherewithal to do it.
But more more important uh it seems to me that Puchin uh knows that in the
coming months he has the capability to wrap up the remaining uh the remaining points that strong points they have u in
in places like Constantinoka that has already been captured. Now the rasputs the the the drainy swampy season that starts the end of September usually.
Well, the Russians I think calculate got two good full months plus to wipe these
people out and to show people in Russia that look the battle on the ground is what's doing it. These long range
missile attacks, yeah, they cause us inconvenience but they have no effect on the war. as Puchin says, quote, "This is
the main point, period." End quote. The other thing I'd like to say is, uh,
Starlake, I was really impressed about 3 weeks ago when Russia Day happened and, uh, Putin
convened, oh, maybe about 20 non-commissioned officers of the infantry, right? The infantry wins the
war. That's what as an infantry intelligence officer was in Gre anyhow that they were really being honored and
then Putin says in the defense minister so what what's what what do you need and what's you got any problems let me hear
him well they were all you know ra straight until Belvich the defense minister says now come on
let's go so after about the third person did speak out Look, we're defenseless against the Starly guided stuff.
It's impeded our advance. Can Can that be fixed? And um Bhin says this is all on camera.
Of course, don't tell anybody. But yes, it can. We got our own system.
Almost ready to be deployed. Please just be a little bit more patient. And then he turns to Bella Uso and he says, "You
see this guy? This is a guy I appointed defenseman precisely because he knows how to get this stuff done, right? He
spent his career in military industrial stuff. Are you going to do that?" Yes, sir. Commanderin-chief. So, so yeah,
it's a real problem these drones on the battlefield as well as these long range uh penetrations. But the Russian there
is good evidence now that the Russians have begun to deploy this anti-torlink thing and to be able to jam Starlink
itself. So, uh, from my point of view, Putin being a very cautious person is
going to bomb the hell out of military-industrial sites and everything he can in Ukraine, trying, as the
Russians have done to spare civilian collateral damage. But taking that into account before he goes goes off
halfcocked and hitting places in a NATO country uh well why should he be I mean
Pascoff himself said informally article 5 doesn't matter. Well yeah Peskov can talk like that Putin not. So
all I'm saying here is that Putin doesn't want to be faced with a situation where even though uh his advisers tell
him that there's 5% 10% chance that anyone will invoke the article 5 of the NATO treaty he tells them why would I do
that 5% 10% that's too high I don't need to do that just be a little bit more
patient now I may be wrong on that but that's my forecast uh and I acknowledge that he is under increasing pressure. My
uh response to that is he's got ways to diffuse that pressure and we'll know more when the elections for the Duma
happen at the end of September. It's not too far away. Uh we'll know before and after how much those elections have any effect on all this. Uh and I don't know.
We'll have to see what what comes out of those.
[clears throat]
Yeah. Well, uh, Larry, I know you got about four minutes, uh, uh, to go and maybe I want to leave you both with a
big question. I saw this Sam Hussein who's a very respected uh journalist and has definitely done some uh really good things. But he wrote this that people
have been commenting on talking about the possibility of the American Empire exercising strategic patience right now
when it comes to Iran saying that the empire's long-term goals have compelled Hamas to relation control of Gaza, kill
NASA, oust Maduro and Assad. Uh but several bigname critics of US government policy jabber are endlessly on podcasts
about how the US establishment is losing. I want to give uh you both uh time to answer this. Larry, you first
since you do have a hard deadline. Um just to understand uh how would you respond to this conclusion? So he's he's
saying that the actually the United States is winning that this is all turn going in US more like exercising strategic patience
meaning uh uh uh adapting and maneuvering uh these conflicts that uh
of course this show has made quite quite clear that uh I we don't believe I don't believe they're going well but
nonetheless uh so let me see let me see if I got this straight [clears throat] in the in the deft movements of the US
policy establishment. Uh they have managed to get themselves now forced to abandon the US naval headquarters in
Bahrain because it's no longer safe to stay there. Uh they've had to abandon uh the the air operation center, the
combined air operations center that was at Aluded, which basically controlled all air traffic, monitored all movements
from north to south. They've they've maneuvered themselves into a situation where Iran has blown up, you know, $3
billion worth of irreplaceable radar and satellite systems. Um, that the United States is now basically
unable to keep any kind of uh full-time presence in any of of the Gulf countries
for fear of that they'll be attacked and destroyed. And that was their strategy. Brilliant.
Brilliant. God, I couldn't have come up with something better myself. I I mean really this uh the the
what was the what was the journalist name that wrote that? Oh, is Sam Husini.
Sam Husini. Uh he ought he ought to consider another profession, fantasy writing for Hollywood. Uh something like that because that's just ridiculous. You
know, the what we've seen is the these the events of the last 13 months both uh with respect to what happened in the Red
Sea and now what's happened with Iran is the the limits of US military power have been completely exposed and that the
United States military while the most expensive in the world has turned out to be one of the least capable in the world.
Right. All right. Well, Larry, I know you have to go soon, so you can certainly log off whenever you want.
I want to thank Larry for all his hard work here. Uh, Larry, I learned a lot from watching what you say and what you
do. I wish you God speed and I hope you get through your next three interviews today.
Well, [laughter] at least I'll have you there along to help me, you know. Thank God. We'll have we'll have somebody with some wisdom, knowledge, and experience. [laughter]
That's right. The next tour would be to with the both of us, right?
Yes. So, all right. See, I'll see you in an hour. Thanks, Danny. All right. See you. Bye.
All right, Ray. Yeah. Same to you. I wanted to uh uh give you a chance to answer this um because I found it
interesting, especially given what's been happening with Iran, but also, you know, they bring up uh the author brings up other examples as well for maybe a
fuller picture, but um I'm curious on your thoughts about it.
Well, uh, Sam Husini is a friend of mine. I think he was sort of commenting in a snide kind of way on somebody
else's, uh, predictions. Uh, the fact is, and it's very troublesome fact to
for me, uh, that NATO leaders and the the media, the mainstream media in all
western capitals are saying that Russia is losing and that Ukraine is winning.
Now, one can be very jaundice and say, well, that's just because they want to make sure that more money is given to Zilinski. And that no doubt is part of
it, but they have to know with the fall of Constantin especially
uh that the battle has been joined and won by the Russians. Uh Putin has the option of going faster if he wants to.
He doesn't really need to. Uh but but it's clear that Russia is winning. Now
the propaganda such as it has been during the Ukraine war uh has been
really unsettling because look at look at December 2022.
The head of national intelligence, what was her name again? Uh I'll it'll come to me. Averil Haynes publicly.
The Russians have lost.
They've left so much weaponry on the battlefield and they have no
indigenous capability to produce to produce the weapons that they've left on the battlefield. So, we're in terrific shape. So, that's what she tells Biden.
That's what she tells the press. My god, where is she getting that? And then just several months later, um Biden is in I
think he was in Helsinki and he asks Bill Burns, the head of CIA, give me a briefing. What what do I say about you
about Ukraine? And so Bill said, I know what I'll do. I'll go visit Kief. And he talks to Zalinski. And Zalinski says,
"No problem. Now, you told the president, "We got it made. Russia has already lost." Now, this is the head of the CIA, right?
10 days later, he goes up to Helsinki and he says, "Mr. President, I just heard from the UK from the Ukrainians
that Russia's already lost. I mean, no problem." So, so Biden gets up and says, "Russia's already lost. No problem."
Okay. So, this is three years, four years ago. Okay. Um, that's the kind of stuff that gets
around and into the Washington Post and into the New York Times. It is still doing that. Now, if I'm a Russian, and
[clears throat]
that was my profession, putting myself in the shoes of the Russian leader. I said, "My god, why are they doing this?
They must know. They they have satellite pictures galore. They know the losses.
My god, why are they doing this? And the answer is, we don't know.
And the answer that I give is beats the hell out of me.
So when the Russians face an unanswered question like that that has really crucial dimensions to it, that makes
them very uneasy. Why what are they preparing the people for when we do win in Ukraine? And it's a big surprise. And
all of a sudden they say, "Oh my god, look at they pulled a rabbit out of a hat. What do we do now?" I just don't know. All I'm saying here, they'll stop
now. Is that if the Russians don't know what this means, I don't know what it means either. Um that it's a real [sighs] It's a real paradox.
It's a real conundrum uh that can only lead to more and more insecurity and a quicker response to anything they see that's going on. And we have that story.
I don't know if it's true or not. Larry was one of the first ones to come up with it. But there is the story that
Trump when he was talking about Ukraine or was it uh I guess it was Iran. Yeah.
Was it Iran? Well, he he started talking about what about nukes and uh allegedly he was shut down. Now, we're
not at that point yet, but so and he left the room. Well, I
I don't know. How are you going to say whether what Trump may have said is true or not? I have if I'm a Russian, I have
to give that story the benefit of the doubt. So look, in my view, this is
significant only in so far as Putin realizes he's got to keep treat this guy with kid gloves. He's got to he's got to
praise uh for example, in his latest conversation with with Trump, which
Trump initiated, by the way, hour and a half, right? Uh the readout says that uh
Trump really congratulated um the president on the Fourth of July festivities which were held in a way
that only uh this particular president could possibly arrange them and they regularly in such
readout indicate that Putin thanks the wife of the president for all the good work she's got done in resettling things
and and that you know it's So, it's a mi a mixture of um oozing charm at every
pore like the my lady story uh and then putting teeth in it saying look uh
army infantry in Iran. That is completely unacceptable.
Complete. It just means completely unacceptable.
Beijing Beijing two days later says exactly the same thing. So if there's a
invasion with ground troops, I mean if the head of Sentcom is so
such a sick fan that he would bless that kind of thing and sacrifice all these troops, uh then the Russians and the Chinese are going to react in a in more
forceful way and Iran will will be able to show that they're not in this alone that they have powerful protectors uh
elsewhere in the global south and elsewhere in the world. So, uh it's a really difficult time. But I think the
good news, and I will say it right out loud, we are lucky as hell to have somebody so cautious, perspeicacious,
and unwilling to be provoked as Vladimir Vladimir Puchi.
Yeah, well said uh Rey and I I just wanted to in s or less uh in response to Sam Husseini who I also resp
I don't know him at all but I respect all he's done. I respect especially when he stands up to uh the uh you know the so-called press spokespeople etc.
Uh Sam Husini. Sam Husini.
Oh Sam. Yeah. Oh Right. Right. Right. Um but in terms of his point about strategic patience exercised by the empire, I just I mean I
just don't see it. A lot of those developments he cited uh could have a much more fuller picture to them. I
think even the idea that Hamas is relinquishing control of Gaza, there's a lot of fine details in there that uh
will and necessitate actually Hamas and the resistance having a lot of participation in whatever happens in
Gaza from here on out. Uh the NASA killing while horrible and should be seen as a setback. uh uh Hezbollah has
fought incredibly uh effectively and has shown a level of strength that I don't think anybody had believed they had
before uh the March 2026 restart of the resistance there and then Maduro as much
as it pains me what's happening with Deli even meeting with Israeli um you know the Israeli mission and all of this
that has been circulating in recent days I think that there's a lot to be said about how that situation inside of Venezuela will be determined by the
broader Bolivarian movement at the end of the day. And they've gone through some horrific setbacks uh like for example a natural disaster for the of
the earthquake and of course the continued sanctions that of course uh make it uh difficult and had made the
Maduro capture and that war crime possible. But at the end of the day, I think the people there are going to be the final say and and of Assad, you
know, that was a setback. We made the comments about Golani being the head of state. It's it's horrible. But at the end of the day, the axis of resistance
is now stronger than it was uh since the start of the Iran war. That's quite clear from just the objective situation
seeing how the United States and Israel are ultimately um you know having so much difficulty achieving this greater
Israel project and of course uh keeping US age intact in the region. So setbacks always those will happen but at the same
time I think the picture is a lot more full than uh that and uh but I do think it's an important point to debate and
discuss because uh ultimately we do also have to draw conclusions from developments not just report them. But
uh Ry any final words before we uh head out of here? Well, in the same spirit here, um
Iran has threatened uh to attack Israel in a major way if Israel or the United
States attacks infrastructure is the way they put it. Critical infrastructure in Iran, I imagine oil facilities and and
other things like that. Now, uh, what bothers me on this score is that the
Iranians have the capability to obliterate, pardon the term, Israel.
What will Israel do in those circumstances? I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating.
inextremists.
Do you think a guy like Netanyahu and his co-conspirators would shy away?
They don't shy away from genocide or force starvation or assassinations of
any leader they can kill. Do you think they would shy away from using their nuclear weapons? I do not. And that's
why we have to really treat this whole crisis really, really gingerly. and circumspectly and all the more so since
we have a person who is so mercurial and actually not well at the helm in this country
and with that said that's a good uh place to close thanks so much Annette for becoming a member Farzan for the super sticker and chili pepper for the
super chat and other US oil problem the lion share of the crude is trapped underground due to equipment failure uh thanks for your participation and for
your support. Everybody, make sure you hit the like button before we go. We're going to head out together. Uh, all the plays support this channel are in the video description below. I'll be back tomorrow with Mark Sloota, 1 p.m.
Eastern time, July 11th. And until next time, Ray, any final words for the audience?
Uh, just keep listening and keep watching and keep spreading the word because that's the only thing that's going to do it. I've devoted my the rest
of my life to spreading some truth around. You're doing a far better job than I am, Danny. Let us all join and do
that because I I' I've kind of got to have a basic faith in the American people if they know what's going on.
That's a major major challenge right now.
Yeah, it is. It is. Well, uh those are very uh great those are very wise words to end with. Everyone hit the like button. that will help uh more people see this.

Iran’s Long Path To Victory / Final Report From Iran
Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris
Jul 11, 2026

Today (July 11 ), which is Dimitri’s last day in Iran, he discusses the Trump regime’s latest ultimatim.

According to Axios, Trump has demanded that, by no later than today, Iran’s government must declare the Strait of Hormuz to be open and must pledge that it will never again attack vessels that attenpt to transit the Strait without the permission of Iran’s military. Otherwise, there will be “harsh consequences” for Iran.

In this report, Dimitri also discusses his reasons for coming to Iran at this time, what he learned on this voyage, and the lessons that Western regimes should draw from the remarkable events of the past week.

Finally, Dimitri also shares stunning footage from the shrine of Imam Reza and the former home of Iran’s martyred Supreme Leader, Imam Ali Khamenei.



Transcript

Good day. This is Demetri Lceris coming to you from the gorgeous Mallet Park in Thran, Iran on July 11th, 2026 for
Reason to Resist. What you just saw was some footage that I shot from the train uh from Mashad to Thran this morning at
about 7:00 a.m. Uh and uh you may have uh been able to make out in the distance in one of these clips I just shared with
you some camels gallivanting in the open desert. Uh an unusual site uh for somebody like myself uh who was born and
raised in Canada. In any case, um we arrived here this morning at around uh 11:00 a.m. after having left uh Mashad
last night on that same train at around uh 10 p.m. So it was around a 13-our train ride. And uh I will be heading out
to uh a destination uh I'm not inclined to disclose at the moment uh on my way
back to Canada. I'll be heading out later tonight departing Iran. And for the time being, I anticipate that this will be my final report from Iridan for
this particular trip, unless something uh uh that really uh obliges me to do another report happens between now and uh my departure time this evening. I'm
going to uh share with you at the end of this report, which is going to focus first and foremost on the most recent
developments in Trump's uh insane and escalating war of aggression on Iran. Uh I'm going to share with you after that
and some other issues of a big picture nature that I want to comment upon. Uh the last footage that I shot when I was in Mashad uh two things in particular.
Uh we were afforded the opportunity to visit the former home of uh Imam Ali Kamei uh whose body was laid to rest on
July 9th in the Imam Resa shrine in Mashad. He lived in this home from uh
for about 10 years. uh right up until the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
And uh in this uh brief video uh which is a tour of home of the home that he lived in at the time, you'll hear uh
about uh uh his humble uh life prior to becoming the supreme leader of Iran and also how he was surveyed by uh the
Savak, the vicious uh intelligence uh arm of the uh Shaw's regime. Uh and the
other thing I'm going to show you is that yesterday for the first time we actually I actually went into the interior of the ImmA shrine and saw the
tomb of uh the uh eighth Imam of uh the Shia faith. Uh and that was quite a
powerful experience uh seeing in particular how uh the Shia faithful gathered around the tomb uh responded to
it. How uh they were overcome with emotion uh in that room and uh just adjacent to where they where the tomb is
ituated. They have laid to rest uh Imam Kamei. Now, we were not able to actually go into the room where his tomb is
situated, but we stood outside it, and you'll uh see uh not only that it was very close to the tomb of Imamza, just a
short walk away, dozens of meters at most, but also uh that this is an absolutely uh stunning work of
architecture. uh the Imam Adza shrine, the entire complex really, but particularly the building in which uh
these tombs are are held or situated. Uh so I'll show you that at the end of this video. And um in the interim, let me get
into uh the most recent developments in this sane insane war of aggression. Uh but before I begin, let uh let me remind
you that uh if you're not already a subscriber to Reason to Resist, please do become one. help us to expand the reach of our unapologetic on the ground
resistance journalism and if you find this video to be informative please do like and share it. So with that uh the
latest news uh emanating from Washington via the ever reliable mouthpiece of
Donald Trump Barakid of Axios is that uh Trump the Trump regime has given uh the
Islamic Republic until today uh Saturday July 11th to renounce control over the
Strait of Hormuz and to pledge that uh it did uh that it will not attack any vessels at all and that the uh transit
through the straight will be free and open without any control by the Islamic Republic. And on top of all of that uh
they have to say in some suitably abject language the Iranians that they made a mistake uh in attacking these vessels
that transited through the straight of Hormuz without their permission. Um and this article of course is based entirely
as are virtually all of the articles uh that Baraka has Davidid has written the former Israeli intelligence agent about
this war on unnamed US officials. And let me tell you folks if you still believe in articles that are based on unnamed US officials particularly those
written by Badak Ravidit uh I think you need to go back to elementary school and learn the basics of a healthy dose of
skepticism. I mean seriously there is no reason whatsoever to attach any weight uh to anything that Barak Raviv has to
say about this war, Donald Trump, Israel, geopolitics generally, particularly when it is based upon
unnamed US officials or unnamed Israeli officials or unnamed officials from some vassel of Washington. Uh, nonetheless, I
I do want to point out one other thing about this article. Uh, that one of the unnamed officials said that there will be harsh consequences if Idran doesn't
comply with the deal. And by the way, compared to some of the genocidal language that Trump himself has used, uh, that is a rather mild threat. Uh and
the other thing is that Ravid says in this article that after Iran this week uh attacked
vessels in the street of Hormuz uh that the United States struck Iran twice. There were two rounds of bombing.
Nowhere in his article does he actually mention that the Iranians hit back. He doesn't even say that they attempted,
let alone actually did strike US military bases in the region. Now, why is this omission journalistically
significant? Because uh by leaving that information out, it conveys the impression that the Iranians did nothing. That they just sat there
passively while they got pounded in two rounds of bombing. Uh and that will mislead people about the true nature of the struggle that is happening in the
street of Hormuz and uh the capabilities of the Iranians to hit back in their determination to do so. It will cause
people to misjudge the readership of Axios. what is actually going on here.
And I I I should also add that the other corporate media outlets around the west faithfully reproduce whatever barakid,
any so-called breaking story, any bombshell that this clown puts out based on these ubiquitous unnamed US
officials, they repeat it all over the western corporate media. So it becomes the dominant story even though it has zero credibility whatsoever. So this is
extremely misleading uh reporting. It is at best journalistic malpractice and uh it only drives home the point that Barak
Ravid he is no journalist. That man is uh at best a scribe for uh the Trump regime, a an uncritical scribe and at
worst uh an agent of the genocidal child murdering Israeli military. Now, another
piece of uh significant news uh is that the Europeans are saying that they will uh consider they will consider some form
of uh transit fee or service fee uh that uh will be payable to Iran uh under some
as yet to be devised uh regulatory regime for the straight of Hormuz. This on the surface seems uh p it seems
almost as though the door is opening a crack for uh the Adanians to achieve their objective at least from the perspective of the Europeans. And let's
be clear, the Europeans are in serious trouble here. They are far more vulnerable to uh a sustained closure of the straight of Hormuz than uh the
United States because they have far less oil and gas of their own. Um and they should be desperate to be getting the straight of Hormuz opened. and if they
were acting in the interests of their people, they would readily pay some reasonable fee to get the ships out. Uh but uh so far they fought that tooth and
nail. Now, as I say, this on the surface appears as though there may be some room for compromise. But here's the kicker, folks. They will only agree to it, if
they agree to it at all, if the payment of the fee is voluntary.
So, uh, the first question you should be asking yourself is if you're not actually obliged to pay this fee to Iran
in order to get your vessels through the straight of Hermuz, why the hell would you pay it? Who is actually going to end up paying this fee? I mean, maybe some
people as an act of goodwill, some companies, for reasons that are unknown to me, this is not in the nature of what for-profit companies uh do, nor is it in
the nature of what Western governments do uh who have demonstrated over decades implacable hostility towards the Islamic
Republic of Iran. But let's suppose that some shipping companies or governments do actually pay a fee voluntarily. The amount of money that ultimately will be
paid to Iran will be negligible. it will not even be remotely sufficient to compensate it on for the devastating uh
forms of warfare that the west has waged on it for decades. Economic warfare, military uh aggression, uh cyber
warfare, lawfare, you know, for example, at the United Nations Security Council, uh you know, the Iran, I think at this
stage, can fairly be said to be owed uh by way of just reparations somewhere in the range of trillions of dollars. Uh,
so this voluntary scheme is a fraud. And let me tell you what I think is going on here. There may be people who get all
excited about this and say, "Oh, whoa, the Europeans are are going to actually do a deal that will satisfy the
Iranians." No, what this is is the Europeans in their dastardly, cowardly, sneaky, slimy, con man sort of way
coming up with some scheme which they know is not going to result in significant compensation ever being paid
to Iran, but which they believe might be a face-saving off-ramp for the so-called
Iranian regime to give up on its demand uh that uh there be uh fees paid for transiting the straight of Hormuz. In
any case, I think this uh scheme, anything involving purely voluntary payments uh will be rejected out of hand
by the Iranians and the existential struggle for the Strait of Hormuz will continue. Uh and it will ultimately be
lost by the West because there is no military solution to Idran's control of the Strait of Hormuz for reasons that I've talked about at length on this
program. I'm not going to repeat them now. Uh and the only real question is how much damage is uh Trump and uh his
vassels in the west and his Arab autocratic vassels, the dictators in the region who serve him. How much damage are they going to do to their own
economies and to the global economy before they finally pay the piper?
That's the only real question here. And I'm not really interested, nor should you be, in those people complaining that
the uh any compulsory fees payable to Iran would violate international law.
First of all, as I've covered, that is debatable. But secondly, if you are perpetrating grotesque violations of international law, including against
Iran itself, then you have forfeited any moral authority or right to invoke international law. And in fact, the West is taking a total wrecking ball to it.
uh it is uh virtually now devoid of credibility and is having no meaningful impact on the conduct of western states or uh their proxies around the world. Uh
so to hell with you in your international law. Uh the only people uh in whose mouth uh I uh attach weight uh
or whose whose pronouncements about international law I uh I regard as weighty and worthy of consideration are
those who actually make a good fa faith effort to comply with it. Uh and that certainly doesn't include any western government. Uh now uh moving on I want
to talk uh about some larger uh picture issues. Um actually before I do that uh
for what it's worth uh my prediction is they're going there's going to be more warfare. I don't know if there's going to be a quote unquote harsh response uh
when this day inevitably goes by without uh the Iranian government complying with the demands uh that were communicated to
it through Barak Ravid and Axios by unnamed US officials. I don't think they're going to comply. I'm virtually certain of it. And uh therefore there uh
there's going to be another moment of truth for the Trump regime. What is it going to do? Probably it will opt for violence. How much uh remains to be
seen. Uh but this is going to go on for some time and unless and until uh and I may sound like a broken record here. Uh
the US economy is screaming in pain and uh the Iranian uh government has inflicted real deterrence real
deterrence on the United States. Uh will there be any hope of a permanent end to
this decadesl long uh depraved war that the west has been waging on the Islamic Republic of Iran? So now uh before I
how you this footage uh that I mentioned at the outset, I want to discuss some big picture issues.
And uh first of all uh I'm I'm going to start by referring to a comment on X
that I saw from a lawyer uh whom I know a Canadian human rights lawyer. Uh he
has done some good work in the past. I believe him to be anti-ionist.
uh but uh he is uh I would say relatively mainstream uh in Canada and I
may have met him personally at some point or spoken to him in a Zoom call at some point but I don't really know him that well. I know of him and generally
speaking he has done good work as a human rights lawyer. So he sent me and you know just as a matter of professional courtesy and because I think he has done some good work as a
human rights lawyer I'm not going to name him. Uh I'm not interested in embarrassing the guy. I'm referring to him only because it's a good launching
point for this discussion which is uh this issue that I want to take up with you. Um and so he said to me, he started
it off by coming on to my uh my uh X feed and replying to a uh post that I
put out about something extraordinary I had seen here in Iran. And he his his reply was something along the lines of I
don't know why you are honoring that man. And uh by that man he clearly meant
the martyr uh Imam Kmeni. Uh and so this brings me to the whole question of what
my opinion of Imam Khani is. And uh let me tell you that I have been asked that
question. I've done probably about two dozen interviews here uh for a variety of Iranian media outlets and some
foreign media outlets. I've been on uh national television on several occasions. could be well over 10 or 15
uh at this point. Plus, I've been uh quoted in the online media. And again and again during the past week, I have been asked what I think of Immi. And I'm
going to tell you exactly what I told uh the Adanian media, which is my honest uh response. I would never give anything but an honest response to this question.
Uh first of all uh for virtually my entire life uh adult life I have heard nothing but unrelenting criticism,
negativity and bombast about uh Imam Khani and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
uh and of course that has come overwhelmingly from western governments and from uh western corporate media and
also I it should be said uh some mainstream western human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Now uh I attach absolutely no weight whatsoever and this is what I said to the I'm I'm telling you exactly what I
told the Iranian media. I have learned in the course of my life at to attach zero weight zero weight to what uh the
western corporate media and western government say about any government uh that refuses to be a vassel of
Washington. And there's no question that the Iranian government refuses to be a vassel of Washington. uh whether they're
talking about Venezuela, uh uh the Russian Federation, China,
North Korea, Yemen, you name it. Uh I uh don't give a damn. I couldn't care less.
A rat's ass uh is what I uh attach that much weight and importance to the opinions of Western governments and
corporate media about governments around the world that refuse to be vassels of Washington. That's number one. Now, that doesn't mean that I automatically think
these governments are good actors. Just because I don't attach weight to their criticisms doesn't mean I think that they are saintly or virtuous or that
they deserve my praise. Uh but uh all I'm saying is uh I come to the whole question with an open mind
notwithstanding the fact that I have been told all of these terrible things about uh the government of the Islamic Republic. Um so that's the first thing.
The second thing is uh I know precious little objective information about the life of Imam Kamini. Very very little.
I've learned a good bit on this trip, but still it's just a a small tiny fraction of the uh arc of this man's life uh that I've become familiar with.
And I'm really not in a position to make any uh broad sweeping uh confident pronouncements about what sort of
individual he was. And again, this is exactly what I said to the media. Uh now, here's what I do know. Here's what
I can say with a high degree of confidence. Uh first of all uh he was not murdered along with uh members of
his immediate family by the United States in Israel because of human rights violations or uh concerns about
democracy or international legal violations or uh threats of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. That's all
bulocks. That had nothing to do with why they murdered him. Murdered him. They murdered him and his close family members because he refused to be a
vassel of Washington. It's as simple as that. He refused to sell out his people and hand over the treasures of this
wealthy rich nation 5,000-year-old civilization to control by the depraved pedophiles in Washington and Tel Aviv.
And for that he paid with his life. That is a certainty. Uh we can say this with
the utmost confidence because of the uh long and sorted record of western governments of lying about respect for
international law and human rights and eliminating, killing, torturing, persecuting people in leadership positions in the non-western world in
particular who refused to be vassels of Washington.
uh and uh you know and the mere and and just the fact that they killed him at the same time as the Israelis and the Americans were carrying out the most
in-your-face audacious genocide in human history. Uh that tells you all you need to know about their real motivation for
killing this man. What else do I know about Imam Kamini? I know that he was uh in effect the leader of the uh most uh
courageous and effective resistance movement. And I by resistance I mean resistance to western hegemony in the world today and the one that has made by
far the greatest sacrifices in the world today. He was the leader of that movement. Uh certainly a leader of that movement. And uh the third thing I know
about Imam Kamei is that uh he could have easily sold out his people if he had wanted to. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for him to do
what for example the Arab autocrats have done or uh what the uh European vassels of Washington have done. how they've
sold out their people and their countries, these traitors, time and time again in order to enrich themselves and empower themselves and glorify
themselves and satisfy their gigantic egos uh by putting themselves in positions of power and having microphones constantly shoved in their
mouths and, you know, living in palatial prime ministerial and presidential residences and eating filemen and fuagra
and sipping on the finest wine and champagne all at taxpayer expense. He could have gone down that path like so
many before him, but he said no. He refused and that's why they killed him.
And for that reason alone, I am fully prepared to honor this man. Uh I don't know what else he may or may not have
done in his life that was virtuous or uh uh evil. uh I'm not in a position to uh
evaluate uh uh the vast majority of his life but I can say those things with confidence and uh for that reason alone
he does deserve uh deep respect on the part of people all around the world at least those who care about justice uh
sovereignty of nations equality and uh anti-imperialism now uh again this is not in some way
shape or form an endorsement ment of everything he has ever said or done. Do not take this as uh as such a statement.
Uh I simply don't know enough about the man's life in order to go any further than I've just gone. And I also want to
say uh that the supposition that by coming here and uh I'm this is the very first time I've actually said on my
program what I think of Ali Hamini. I've said it on Iranian television this week uh many times because I was constantly
asked the question. Uh but uh up until now all I've been doing uh on my own platform is reporting what I'm seeing.
That's it. Reporting what I'm seeing. uh because I think it's very important that people understand what what tens of millions of Iranians actually think
about Imam Kamini. Uh which brings me to uh the whole subject of public opinion in this country.
Now um I want to just point out that it is customary in the west uh that uh we
uh attach in the public discourse on a daily basis uh enormous weight to public opinion polls offered up by uh corporate
entities most of which uh are operated for a profit uh to uh guide us in our
understanding of how the public views various issues of importance. Okay. We we rely upon these polls every single
day. And um these polls in broadstrokes how they work is uh the polling firm
will go and uh pick a statistically significant sample uh randomly selected
sample of people from uh a targeted population uh you know whose opinion they want to assess and uh they'll ask
them a question and they'll get an answer. Usually it's done, you know, it can be done in person, but more often than not nowadays it's done electronically. It's done by telephone.
Uh so they're not even face to face. uh and um they then uh extrapolate from the
answers that they receive from this tiny little sample uh to the broader population and based upon a statistical
uh you know formulation they'll come out with the conclusion that uh this represents public opinion within the
targeted population uh you know to uh within a certain range plus or minus 2% or plus and minus 3%. and we routinely
rely upon these polls. Now, um I'm not going to uh tell you that you shouldn't rely upon these polls. I think there are
a lot of legitimate questions about the accuracy of polls in the West for a whole variety of reasons. All I'm going to say is this. Uh you know, um the
people who are answering these questions uh in these polls, uh there's no cost to them of lying. There's absolutely no
cost to them of lying. It's not like, you know, they'll be tried for perjury if they are determined to have lied to the pollster. Uh, and, uh, all they got
to do is basically, you know, uh, type an answer onto a keyboard or say yes or no, uh, in, uh, a conversation on the
telephone. They may or may not be telling the truth. Uh, they may or may not feel strongly about the answer that they give. They may just feel that way on that particular day, but the next day
they have a completely different view about the question uh, that was put to them. Uh so it might be just some kind of transitory feeling that they express
to the pollster which doesn't really tell you much about the general views within the population. But the bottom line is here you know the people who
respond to these polls there's no cost to them of lying or offering up some answer that is illconsidered uh is just
a fleeting impression or feeling that they have. There's no cost. Now let's uh compare this to what I witnessed here
this week. What I witnessed here this week was millions of people. This is what I saw with my own eyes. Okay? Uh
this is not the total number because I was at these uh funeral processions and these prayer uh gatherings in massive mosques only for a few hours at a time.
The actual uh events took place for far more time than I was physically present.
But while I was there uh 3 days in Thran and two days in Mashad, I saw millions
of people with my own eyes cumulatively over that period of time. Uh the number is certainly in the tens of millions.
According to the Yanian government, it's somewhere between 40 and 43 million people in total. Uh they came to this conclusion they say using a variety of
methods including uh the number of passengers using the metro system in Thran. Uh they looked at cell phone activity. Uh they looked at uh bank card
activity, things of that nature. Uh in addition, there was, you know, extensive aerial footage, helicopters, overhead, drone footage, and so forth. So they say
they looked at a variety of sources, and it was, uh, you know, 40 to 43 million, which would make it by far the largest
funeral in recorded history. I can't verify, I haven't seen, you know, the uh the the data that they rely upon. They
only described in broad terms how they came to this conclusion. But what I can say is that I myself saw millions of people in the streets grieving the
passing of and I walked among them. I wasn't that great distance. I walked among them every time, listened to them and on some occasions actually spoke to
them and interviewed them. And uh I myself saw millions of people in the relatively short time that I was actually in or around uh those funeral
processions. So it seems to me uh a virtual certainty and I didn't even see any of it was not present at all in Iraq
in Najaf or Karabala where there were millions of people apparently. Uh so I think it's safe to say that there were tens of millions of people 20 million I
would say at least uh and the number may be as high as 40. Now Iran has a population uh in the range of about 93 million people.
93 million people and the overwhelming majority of those people I assure you were Iranians. there were foreigners there but uh they probably constituted
less than uh 10% I would estimate of the uh just based upon my personal interactions with people less than 10% of the total number so you are talking
about a huge swath of the Iranian population is it a majority no uh but it
is a large segment of the Iranian population it is at a minimum at a bare minimum a very large minority of the
Iranian population and This act of support, this expression of support had a cost. The cost was you actually had to
go out in public in searing heat at a time when your country was being bombed by the child murdering uh Trump regime
uh and spend hours of your time and not just actually there at the procession.
Getting to it was quite a chore. I saw people walking in the blazing heat kilometers uh from uh and to their residences just
to get to the uh the lo the location of the funeral procession. So you may say this is not an enormous cost, but it is
a cost. It's a hell of a lot bigger cost uh than the cost that one must pay to answer a pollster over the telephone or
via your computer. Okay. So what am I saying here? I'm saying to you that I think that the evidence that I witnessed
of support for the uh martyr supreme leader of Iran with my own eyes and I heard with my own ears is much more
weighty than a poll. uh because of the fact that I literally saw these people out there in conditions that exposed
them to risk uh in conditions that required them to expend a significant amount of their time uh during a period of considerable hardship for this
country. And uh I saw them cry, I saw them shout, I saw them I saw them and heard them demand justice. Uh to me this
is much more compelling uh than some nameless individual uh whom some for-profit or not for-p profofit
pollster says gave a particular answer in you know a survey that took a few seconds for them to fill out uh with
there being no risk no cost to them whatsoever of misrepresenting their position or offering up some view that was just some transitory fleeting
opinion that they happen to have in that particular moment. Okay, this is com this is probably in my view the most compelling credible evidence you could
have of of support for a political or religious figure. Uh the fact that
people come out spend hours of their time in very harsh uh weather conditions at a time when their country is being
bombed by the most destructive maniacal evil power that the world has ever seen.
Uh that to me is the most compelling evidence of support that you could possibly have. Now again, does this mean the majority of the Iranian population
feels this way about Imam Kamei? Uh I don't know. I can't say that uh with a high level of confidence. It may well be. Uh but I can only tell you about
what I saw with my own eyes. And what I saw with my own eyes completely undermines the Western narrative. The western narrative being that only a tiny
fanatical fringe of the population supports Imam Hamei or supported him and support the Islamic Republic and if they
are given any kind of an opportunity to overthrow them and rid themselves of this so-called regime, they will do it in a heartbeat and happily replace it
with some regime that is well disposed towards Washington and the West generally. That's the narrative. Well, uh, what we saw this week, my friends,
uh, blows that narrative out of the water, and that is why I came here. My message to that lawyer who put that comment out there, even though I do for
the reasons I've articulated, I respect what Imam Khani did in his life. That's not again an endorsement of everything
he ever did. I don't know enough to give an endorsement of everything he ever did. And if I did have a wholesome view about his life or knowledge about his
life, I may have some very serious criticisms to offer, but I don't. Uh, so it happens, it so happens for the
reasons I've articulated that I do think he merits our respect. But that's not why I came here. I didn't come here to honor him or anywhere anyone else. I
came here to discover whether in fact the western narrative about uh the Islamic Republic of Iran is true. And we
can now say to my mind uh beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's complete and utter bollocks. You may not like it. You
may think that sucks. You may detest the Islamic Republic of Iran. But there are tens of millions of people here in this country who support the Islamic Republic
of Iran, who respected or even revered the supreme leader, the martyed supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
And that is a reality that we have to deal with. If you want to have an intelligent, humane foreign policy, you have to deal in reality. You don't deal
with the world as you wish it to be. You deal with the world as it is. And any politician out there uh that is
qualified to hold public office will know this. And if you don't know this, then you've got no goddamn business holding public office. you should be uh
run out of town, run out of the capital, run out of the halls of power because you are going to lead us down the path to misery and destruction uh by pursuing
a foreign policy that is based upon your own personal fantasies and your own personal wish list rather than on the obvious demonstrable facts of this
world. So that's uh why I came here. Now there will be people out there uh you
know bad faith actors who will want to insinuate this happens every single time I come to a country like this and provide this kind of coverage factual
coverage in a country that is being targeted by these depraved criminals from the west. I get accused of having
some uh monetary motivation for doing this. So I'm just going to lay it out there. Uh, I haven't been paid a dime by
anybody to do this subject to one qualification, which I'm going to explain to you in a moment. Not only have I not been compensated for my time
in reporting here, it's been, believe me, a full-time job. There's been no partying going on here. Okay? This has
been hard work every day for the eight days that I've been here. And, uh, it's been very uh, uncomfortable work, frankly, because of the heat. and we
spend so much time out in the blazing hot sun uh photographing these events and and speaking to people in the
streets. Uh it has not been uh what I would call uh a uh a gay old time. It
has been really hard, grueling work and I've not been paid a dime for it. And in addition, I've paid my own expenses
as I do on all of these trips. Every single time I've gone to Lebanon, every time I've gone to Palestine, every time I have come to Idan, I have paid my own
expenses and I have not been compensated a dime for my work subject to this one
qualification. Uh the qualification is that uh my YouTube channel, Reason to Resist, is monetized.
And in addition, some people do make donations uh to our channel. Uh, and by the way, if you're interested in doing
that, look at the description to this video. Uh, I I very rarely, by the way, ask for donations. I almost never do it, but since I'm on the subject of
donations, if you are interested in, uh, donating and helping us to do this work and expand our on the ground coverage, we do encourage you to make donations,
and you can find out how to do that by looking at the description to this video. But uh let me assure you that since we founded this channel uh about
uh two years ago, a little less than two years ago, uh we have not generated enough money
from uh monetization uh payments and donations to cover our expenses. Uh and here I'm talking about all the expenses
because of course the traveling expenses when we do on the ground reporting is just part of our expenses. We have expenses related related to editing. Uh
we have staff who does uh some of our editing. Uh we have uh uh uh you know various types of subscriptions and
software and you know we have to buy uh you know computer equipment, photographic equipment so forth. Uh so uh I have an office uh that I use in
Montreal strictly for the purpose of uh doing uh reports for reason to resist. I have to pay a rent for that office. So
38 minutesuh you know when you add it all up uh from the time we founded Reason to Resist a little less than two years ago, it exceeds the money we have received from monetization and from uh donations.
So this has actually cost me money.
Okay, not only do I not get paid for doing what is in effect a full-time job, some weeks it's more than a full-time job and it involves considerable
personal risk when I come to war zones uh as I have this week. Um, not only am I not paid, but I've actually had to
dole some money out of my own pocket in order to do this work. So, look, that doesn't mean that everything that I uh report is correct. I try to be as
accurate as possible. It doesn't mean that all of my opinions are sound opinions. I try to have good opinions, well-reasoned opinions that are based
upon evidence. Uh, you know, you may want to criticize uh the substance of what I've had to say in some report or
another. Uh but uh don't tell me uh that I have some ulterior motive for doing this work, Okay? I got no
39 minutesulterior motive. In fact, what I just told you, how many people who do journalism can say this? What I just told you that they're not paid for the
work that they do and that they actually have to dole money out of their pockets to do it even when they are putting their lives on the line to do that work.
So I'm saying all of this for one simple reason. All the haters out there who are going to want to attack my bonafidees
and claim that I have some personal gain to acrewue as a result of doing this work that I'm somehow, you know, have
been incentivized to be an agent of the regime in is in Iran. You know, go to hell all of you. Okay, you people. I I
hardly know anybody at all uh particularly amongst this population of haters who would be willing to do uh the work that I have been doing for nearly
the past two years with no compensation and and and also to dole out money out of their own pocket even when uh doing that work has entailed significant
personal risk. I don't I don't know that any any of these people who criticize me have ever done such a thing and I really doubt they ever have or ever will. So uh
yeah to hell with all of you haters out there. Now, uh, with that, I think I've covered off pretty much everything, uh,
I wanted to say, uh, except actually two items before I show you this footage I mentioned at the outset. Uh, number one,
uh, in one of the speeches I was asked to give here, uh, I mentioned at the very outset of the speech a wonderful documentary, uh, called Alj Leamech de Revolutionire.
It was uh uh produced I think in 2017 uh by a very talented documentary
filmmaker uh from Algeria. I may get his name wrong here but as I recall his name was Ben uh Salama something along those
lines and I do apologize to him if I've mispronounced his name. In any case uh what is this documentary about? this
documentary is about and by the way uh if you don't speak French the title means Alir's uh the mecca of revolutionaries and so this documentary
is about the period uh the few years uh following uh the um the uh Algeria's uh
winning of independence in a brutal war in which the savages uh in uh the French regime murdered
millions of Algerians because they simply wanted to be sovereign and to have their own country and to rid themselves of this uh colonial pestilence that had afflicted
them for so long. Um so they finally achieved independence in 1962 and for a number of years uh particularly when uh
a leader by the name of Benbella was in power in Algeria. Alier the capital of Algeria did actually serve as the mecca
of revolutionaries. It was frequented by people like uh Malcolm X, uh members of
the Black Panthers, uh Nelson Mandela, uh Patrice Lumumba, Fidel Castro, Cheay
42 minutesGuavada, uh and many other uh leading figures uh from revolutionary movements around the world. And uh unfortunately
eventually uh for a variety of reasons which are uh discussed in some detail in that documentary which I've watched several times and I I highly commend it
to you uh alers ceased to play that role. Well uh what I told people in my speech today earlier this week when I
talked about this re this uh this documentary is that today uh the mecca of revolutionaries is right here. Thran.
Thran is and should be the place on which revolutionaries around the world converge in order to discuss, cooperate,
collaborate in the liberation of oppressed peoples all around this world by any and all means necessary. That's
what it should be. That's what it can be. And I think that that's what it very much has become. And it's interesting to me that the predecessor Mecca of
revolutionaries was also from a predominantly Muslim country like Idran is. What significance you take from that
I leave it to you to decide. In any case, um the other thing I want to say to you before I show you this footage uh
is share with you is that uh when I was walking back on the night that they buried uh the martyed Imam Kamei uh at
the uh spectacular ImmA shrine really the footage you're about to see I think will
give you some sense of its extraordinary beauty. As I was walking back to my hotel that night, a woman uh an Iranian woman uh stopped me in the street. She
saw that I was uh talking into my camera in English and that I was wearing a badge, a journalist identification. And
uh she spoke impeccable English, but she was clearly Ian and she had an accent.
And uh and she said to me uh first of all uh that she couldn't thank me enough for coming to her country and uh telling
44 minutesuh the West the truth about Iran. And then she looked uh into my camera, which I stupidly thought was turned on, but it
wasn't. And she said to me, "Look all around me." and she was surrounded of course uh by masses of people mourning
uh the martyed Ali Kamei. She said, "This is Iran. This is the real Iran." And then she pointed at herself. She
said, "I am not AI. I'm a real human being and I'm speaking to you here from Iran today. And this is Iran."
So with that, let me uh turn over uh to you the uh footage that I shot first of the uh interior of the Imam Resa shrine.
The Imam Imam Resa shrine. This is for the eighth Imam of uh the Shia faith and
uh the only one who is buried in uh Iran. Uh and when I was there, I was told that uh you know people who are
45 minutesfaithful Shia uh members of our entourage that uh millions of uh people tens of millions of people come to the
shrine every year. Often times it's it's almost like the shrine of last hope. They come when all else has failed.
They're on the verge of bankruptcy. They have some terminal illness. Uh their marriage has broken down. Uh you know
the person that they love deeply has abandoned them. uh they come to this shrine uh to to be uh saved and to be
revived and to find hope. And uh I was told many a story while I was there about miracles that uh they tell me had
happened uh when people came to the shrine seeking uh uh assistance uh in
their hour of need from Imam Resa. In any case, that may uh you know, this is a belief that is widely shared amongst the Shia here. Uh that this shrine uh
does serve that purpose and uh that may help you to understand why you're about to see so much emotion amongst the faithful who were there at the time when
I visited. And then afterwards uh as I say, you'll see a brief report from uh the residents of uh the former residents
of the martyed Imam Kmeni uh in the 10 years prior to the Islamic Revolution.
Uh thank you very much for watching our coverage from Iran uh during the past eight days. Uh for me personally uh even
if of course I hope I very very deeply that our reporting has enlightened you.
Uh that is the primary motivation uh for our coming here and doing what we do. Um
but even if and I would be very saddened if this were true, we didn't actually enlighten a single human being on this
planet uh by means of our reporting during the past week. I still will uh feel with all my heart and soul that uh
coming here uh was eminently worth it because this was what I saw during this week, one of the most marvelous
experiences of my life. I've never seen anything like it and I doubt I ever will again.
This is where the martinate supreme leader Ameni has been uh intombed.
Wow.
What's up?
ee the masses of people who have come to see his final resting place.
That is the tomb of Imamza.
here.
This is where they have placed in order stream.
It's not open to the public yet.
So, it's you can see it's a bit very very close to the tomb of Imamza.
which is a a sign of great respect.
Heat. Heat.
Okay,
Take it away.
Good day everybody. It's Dimmitri Lceris coming to you from Mashad, Iran on July 8th, 2026.
Uh I'm standing in the courtyard of what used to be the residence of the martyrd supreme leader of Iran, Ali Hamei. Uh we
were we as in uh the foreign journalists uh in our entourage were offered the
opportunity to come here and to see how he lived uh this man uh in his 30s. Uh
he we were told uh lived in this house for about 10 years 10 years previous to the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
And uh we're going to uh share with you uh some footage and commentary uh from
uh a local uh cleric who is familiar with the history of this residence. Um,
and you'll see as we approach uh what used to be the Supreme Leader's residence and as we tour the interior
that it's very uh simple, very austere uh residence. And uh frankly, if we hadn't been told that this was uh
formerly the residence of the Supreme Leader, uh we wouldn't have recognized it from the street. Uh, and I and soon
as I saw it, uh, I thought to myself, I tried to imagine what, let's say, some
Trumpian figure from the halls of power in the west would want, uh, his or her former residence to look like. I suspect
it would be a lot more conspicuous and lavish than what we found here today. In any case, uh, let's, uh, let's have a
closer look at the exterior and in the interior and hear from the cleric uh, who guided us about the history of this place.
In the name of God the compassion of the merciful. I extend my deepest condolences on the occasion of Muaram
and also on the occasion of martyed of Iran's supreme leader.
This is an old neighborhood in Mashad. It's called Sur.
And this is Milan Milan 27.
This is well known as or scholars. That's right. Street. There
were lots of Islamic scholars here living in this alley.
Okay. in uh in the year 1346 Iranian calendar uh Iran's supreme leader uh
purchased a 500 m land here by the help of his father and his father-in-law. His
father-in-law was one of the merchants of that time.
Uh the land which he had uh the land which the land which he had purchased was 500 m but because he hadn't enough
uh money to build the place he divides it to part 200 he gives 200 150 m of the
land to someone else to build a twostory building and four store building uh two.
Yeah, that's right. for uh supreme leader and two store for the constructor.
Twotory building. Yeah.
Okay. Iran supreme leader used to live here up until the uh victory of uh revolution in 1979.
So it's about 1967 to 1977. Okay. 79.
Uh he had lived in rent rented houses uh four rented houses before purchasing this uh land.
This was a market at that timearket and it was government intelligent uh force of sha.
Okay. The supermarket was a cover and he was uh the owner was the intelligent uh agent.
Well, the guy reported all the visits that that were taking place here.
Marti, Martahari, revolutionary figures. Yeah. the military figures of that time.
Okay. Well, then uh at that time finds out that he's a
secret agent. Uh he has a plan that when he receives guests, he sends them out from the other uh door. Back door. Yeah.
From the back door. And also uh sometimes when he has guests, he sends his children to do some shopping from
there in order to keep them busy and they can have their meetings freely. Yes.
This was the hole and then these two blocks next to each other are uh 500
square meters and well the one divided two part
doctor.
You know, it's uh remarkable how simple this has remained. You know, they haven't turned it into like a Trumpian shrine to his greatness.
Theme park. Yeah, exactly. very austere. Yeah.
You wouldn't even know it if you weren't led here by knowledgeable people.
They will have these gardens, but you can't see from the street. Yeah, it's amazing.
This is like a peaceful
Stop. Stop.
Muslim will shine here.
Wow. Warm welcome to all of you. All the place that you are right now belong to the martyr supreme leader and he has
been living here uh till for 10 years till 1979.
for the tree that you see growing on the wall
that's been planted by the supreme leader.
Yeah, there also the thick uh tree has been planted by the Marty Supreme Leader.
Okay. After the Islamic revolution when well Islamic revolution was victorious the
supreme leader sold this property to his brother.
As already told there are two doors for this building that sometimes they use one for
entrance, the other for exit in order to uh well control the while the visitors were coming here. The revolutionaries were coming here.
Okay. Well, Supreme Mart Supreme Leader was arrested several times in this place.
in 1978, one year prior to Islamic revolution victory while the intelligence of one
midnight come here and they bang the door when Marcus actually opens the door
a bit late. They forcefully open the door and kick his leg.
Yes.
At that night was resented because his family was there. They were uh they woke
up because of the harsh voice that the agents made. And uh supreme leader actually was uh a little bit uh
anxious and sad because of what happened.
Uh after when he was arrested at that time well he was sent to exile for 260
6 minutesdays in haven't you seen for 290 days it
was sent to exile took city in south east of Iran You can comment
as
something.
Vietnamese.
So, we are now in the basement of what used to be the home of Ali Kami. in the 10 years leading up to the revolution,
the Islamic Revolution. And uh they've converted this into a sort of mini archive to get a sense of uh the trajectory of his life.
No, you can show me.
These documents uh are from criminal proceedings that were brought against uh the
martyr supreme leader when he was a cleric in the pre-revolutionary years.
So these proceedings would have been brought against him uh by the uh the authorities of this show.

IRAN: Funeral Ends & Some Final Thoughts From Mashhad
by Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire
Jul 13, 2026

SUPPORT OUR MEDIA PLATFORM:
https://21stcenturywire.com/support/

Some final thoughts from Patrick Henningsen in Iran's second largest city, the holy city of Mashhad, following the final day of a week's long state funeral procession for the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, assassinated with members of his family by the US and Israel in late February 2026. This week has revealed many truths about Iran, the Middle East/West Asia, as well the the direction of global geopolitics in general. All this and more.



Transcript

o some some reflections in the city of Mashad. This has been an absolutely
incredible here. Came from Tran after this massive
state funeral procession in Tran, the capital on Monday. I think all said and done, I mean even the Financial Times
admitted there 15 million people in Tran attending the various ceremonies. So I mean that's terms of a state funeral
globally I think that's a record. Uh but the the final stop was here in the holy
city of Mashad and this is the second largest city in the Islamic Republic of Iran. And uh we're sort of in the
northeastern corner of Iran. A 12-hour train journey overnight to get here. So
it was uh yeah flights not available. So you can imagine millions of people were here for the funeral of the supreme
leader Yayatollah Sid Ali Ham and I have to tell you the atmosphere it's a very different energy yesterday
and uh we were there on the street as you can see uh the the images the feeling the
emotion the passion uh all of that was palpable while the energy was very high and
really kind of defiant in Tran that was it is a megatropolis but in in in uh in this city is a little
bit different because of the final stop in a 6-day procession that wasn't limited to Iran they took the remains of
the supreme leader and his family to Naf which is also a holy city uh with some
of the most prominent Shiite uh shrines there uh and scholars uh from that
branch, the Iraqi kind of school of Shi Islam and then back again to Iran and here to Mashad. I think this holy city
of Guam as well. They had a procession there. Again, millions of people attending in all of these locations collectively. I mean, we said this at
the beginning of the week. We said that you know at some at some point upwards of half the population of Iran
not it's hard to calculate but just based on the collective numbers of these three or four locations in in Iran not
counting Iraq uh upwards of half the population will have participated
uh in this event in one way or another either in person or one of the smaller
sort of satellite events. So that if you think about that, that's incredible for a city with a population of uh
uh well Mashad I don't know what the population here is but Tran 12 million
and uh Mashad's slightly smaller or a lot smaller but the country 90 million
people in Iran. So I think that suffice to say uh this is a very
religious country despite what the western media attempt to portray it as and
the a very good majority I think of people in this country revered their supreme leader and let's not
forget he was assassinated by the United States in Israel as a head of state that served
his country. He's been there for his people for 37 years and before that as well as a key figure in the Islamic revolution.
So this is was a very popular leader, very much revered uh very much the uh
spiritual leader, political leader, military leader and just a teacher for generations. This
is we've spoke to so many people. Oh, I don't know how many interviews I've done with Iranian media asking me what myself
as an American, what what what my view of the Supreme Leader is. And that's a hard question. I don't know what it's
like to have grown up with the uh sort of father figure of the country for two
generations, but I assume that uh it was a big part of people's lives. And again, he was very well respected and revered.
is demonized in the west. That's expected.
Uh portrayed as a terrorist mastermind, a a mad mulla. These are all the sort of Walt Disney level caricaturures that the
West cultivate about their political opposition.
So the truth of course is something completely different. And you can tell by the outpouring of emotion from
Iranians at the loss of their leader. They're also reflecting on his life, his time,
the country's kind of evolution, if you will, post revolution in 1979. These are
all you have to kind of bring all of these things together in order to kind of assess what these things mean. And
this is a kind of analysis or at least just a kind of basic consideration that uh western media don't engage in. um
they're really just defaulting to like really like I said Disney Disney level cartoon stereotypes. That's kind of what it boils down to.
And what I've learned here just in the short time I've been here, but a very intense time and around the country is
that uh nothing could be further from the truth as with regard to the western depiction
of the Iranian leader uh Iranian society and what people really think and feel.
And uh you know I've reported on all the various things that have happened uh the war the uh the US and Israeli induced
riots. The US is [snorts] on record admitting they trafficked weapons into the hands of peaceful protesters.
So, I get trolls in the comment threads saying things like, "Uh, you're you're an IRGC propagandist
and uh that this man killed 50,000 of his own people in cold blood. Total lies. I I
was here in February to debunk those narratives post riot and we did our own investigation
and looked at the evidence in Iran, spoke to police, uh we showed images of
a lot of the damage done by these riers, spoke to the vict family's victims, the innocent bystanders, all of that. So, I
don't really want to go into that, but it's just amazing how powerful the propaganda is that they're still using
that trope uh in order to sort of cultivate their own narrative uh with regards to what's what it's really all
about here. And the West are just kind of stuck in this ghetto, this intellectual ghetto where people rely on
very corrupt mainstream media organizations. Everyone knows the mainstream's corrupt, yet people still rely on them for the, you know, to
inform them about geopolitics and what life or politics or political leaders are like in uh countries like this. This
country is at war with America. They have been for 40 years, 40 plus years, 47 to be exact, and uh and Israel.
And propaganda is an important part of that. that that's how America get and Israel get buyin from their own
populations to wage war. They need to tell lies and those lies need to be more outrageous and more ridiculous than you
know anything you could uh anything that's plausible in a real world. Now the overall energy let's talk about the
the procession yesterday. Um the energy was was very heavy and you know at times
it was very quiet. You know I'm walking through a sea of people as I'll show you some footage. Um walking through a sea
of people and just you there's a grief there there's a mourning there and at certain point in the afternoon waiting
for the remains to arrive as the people gather in their millions. There is this kind of heavy energy where everyone's
realizing this is it. This is the final goodbye to their their leader and much
beloved. I have to say there's no doubt about that. And um much respected and
much revered. And so you could feel that energy. Then there's also an energy of defiance later in the evening. Um
and a as the sort of festivities take take on a different characteristic and uh and that's that's to be expected.
Certainly no one can be surprised at that. I can't. Nobody can. Nobody in their right mind can because of what
happened in in at the end of February, beginning of March of this year. the United States
and Israel uh assassinated a very popular long-erving head of state and his family. What did his family do? What
is uh 14year-old granddaughter or you know it's
14-month-old, pardon me. I mean children were killed in that air strike. What did they do to the US? What did the supreme
leader ever do to the US? What did Iran ever do to the US? Well, there's a it's a pretty extensive record of what the US
has done to Iran, not vice versa. That's why again all the propaganda is constructed to to sort of justify this
kind of, you know, aggressive stance towards towards Iran. So, it's important that we put all of that in its place.
And but the so there was an absolute uh you know total defiance and you know
wide wide ranging calls for to avenge the death of their leader. You know, a lot of Americans will look at that and
think, "Oh, they want us. They want to kill us." Because Americans are amazing.
And Westerners, they just think they live on such a pedestal in this kind of colonial,
very strange virtual colonial world that they're still residing in. It's a type of a matrix. and they just can't believe
that somebody halfway across the world would want uh you know to avenge want to you know uh avenge the death of the
president by you know inflicting harm on US presidents or politicians or whatever but they don't give they don't even give
a thought they don't give a thought about it uh about what the US have done with no justification whatsoever to the
Iranian leader and his family to society here the sanctions the deprivation, the economic warfare, the bombing, the
bombing of Minab school in the southern part of Iran, slaughtering
168 odd young girls. I mean, what was the point of this but to anger the Iranian population?
Is that what it is? Because that was the end result. So, you know, Americans are very detached from all this. they just don't see. They
just assume, oh well, you know, governments, our media say it's a terrorist state, so it must be. And then
that was the end of that. So this is the problem. You know, now the US is so deep
in the hole on this that so deep in the hole, they don't even
really have a strategy to get out of that hole. They've just got all these sort of flailing tactical maneuvers uh to try to ameliate the damage they've
already done to themselves, to the region, to the global economy, to their own economy, and of course, most of all to Iran.
So there it is, folks. That is the reality of the situation.
It's quiet today here in Mashad, but last night 3:00 a.m. 4:00 a.m. it
was full steam out here and the crowds were out in the millions
practically till the dawn. It was really a sight to see. It's a powerful
display of uh collective purpose. really it's hard to it's hard
to put it into words. I you know I've been to some of the biggest protests.
I've been to the biggest events. I've seen a Pope State visit. I've seen all of this and
I I I haven't seen anything that even remotely compares to what I have witnessed here in Mashad and in Tran.
Tran with the Grand Masala, Grand Mosque funeral processions on I believe it was Friday or yeah, Saturday and Sunday.
14 minutesFriday, Saturday. And and then of course the big street procession in Tan on
Monday, which was just mind-blowing. Uh we reported on that. You probably seen our socials
with some of that. So, it's definitely been, you know, I've been, it's my third visit to this country.
Mind you, I'm getting journalist visas, so we're only giving a very short time.
And uh it's war right now. The US is at war. Israel is still at war with Iran.
US has just bombed yesterday. Uh in fact, they bombed the train line that we took from Tran to here. It's overnight 12-hour train. They bombed a train bridge. So that's caused massive delays.
It's it'solated a lot of people for the time being until they can do the necessary repairs uh to that line. But
the US would have the tumarity to just mass bombing campaign hitting 80 targets in this country during the state
funeral. I mean that kind of shows you where the US is which is absolutely crazy and insane.
But there you have it.
There you have it. That's uh yeah, so there aren't many Americans here. And uh so I'm I'm a bit of an oddity.
Um there are a couple of journalists.
Not too many. Couple of my Yeah. Couple my colleagues here are American. Not too many. But it's
it's an interesting it's an interesting point of view and I've had some great conversations you know and despite what
our US government with the Trump administration have done and are continuing to do to this country
uh I say the Iranian people almost 100 100% have been absolutely hospitable
have been absolutely gracious and have been the most wonderful hosts.
that you could ever wish for at every single interaction, including being out in the street in a
crowd, like being pushed in crowds with, you know, thousands and thousands of people into small streets. And, you
know, we were in in those sort of situations and people were very considerate, very helpful and not
aggressive or everybody had this sense of uh very clear purpose of what they're
doing. and why they're there. And you know, it was it was extraordinary. I've never felt that level of energy in a crowd
before. And you know, the the the the religious spiritual element has a lot to
do with that, as does the war back backdrop. Uh as does the absolute
commitment to their faith that these people have. And I've learned a lot about Shia Islam especially during this
visit spoken to many uh religious adherence and including some clerics
about various things and uh and a lot of people have very interesting geopolitical worldview much more
sophisticated much more nuanced than anything that you would find in Europe at the moment.
So that should be something people need to consider. Uh, this is an incredible country. These are
incredible people. This is a 5,000y old I said 3,000 the other day. One of my Iranian colleagues corrected me. He said 5,000y old civilization.
So, a civilizational state has managed to navigate through some of
the roughest waters uh globally and geopolitically, militarily, politically, economically in
the last 12 months, but really in in many years preceding this. And that's that is something
that's the the Iranians, this this society, this culture, this country is
exceptional on many levels. One one can only wonder what it would be if it wasn't under crippling sanctions [music] or the currency wasn't being attacked
from the outside and they weren't being militarily attacked and having their leaders assassinated and and all of this
other stuff. what you know what sort of country would they be probably incredibly successful on the world stage in some ways they already are.
So that's also something to think about.
But this has been a very very interesting and a time for reflection here uh in the city of
Mashad. And I've got a greater appreciation for a lot a lot of things
about this country, its people, its culture, its history, and its faith. And so hopefully we'll
we'll be uh we'll be looking at some of these issues more. We'll be talking to you more. And uh again, I appreciate
I appreciate your uh our support from our viewers in the comments. And uh yeah, we'll have there'll be a few more
reports coming, but you can look at some of the shorts I posted on Hex and Instagram. Uh some of the sort of
shorter reports on this, but um yeah, I appreciate you guys. 21st Century Wire.
Look, like and subscribe this video on YouTube and there's a link below. Consider supporting us at 21wire.tv.
Subscribe and become a member or donate.
Whatever you can do to help us with people like you that allow people like me to come to places like this to bring you the truth. Take care. All the best.

Iran war spirals as UAE tankers hit; Houthis impose Saudi airspace ban | Janta Ka Reporter
by Rifat Jawaid
Janta Ka Reporter
Jul 14, 2026

The Iran war has entered a dangerous new phase after two UAE oil tankers were hit by Iranian cruise missiles while transiting the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz. The brazen attack, which left one sailor dead, coincided with a massive wave of Iranian retaliatory missile and drone strikes targeting US military installations across the Gulf.

Elsewhere, the conflict continues to expand as Houthi rebels declare a total ban on Saudi airspace, warning international commercial airlines to stay clear. Rifat Jawaid presents last night's critical developments with his sharp, unfiltered analysis.



Transcript

The Iran war has spiraled out of control now as last night's developments suggest. Iran fired more ballistic missiles and drones across Gulf states.
It also hit two UAE oil tankers that were trying to pass through the state of Hormuz using the Omani route. At least
one person has been reportedly killed and eight injured. A lawmaker from Donald Trump's Republican party has said
that he mourned the loss of hundreds of US soldiers in the Iran war. Saudi Arabia has bombed the Sada governorate
of Yemen after the Ansarah fighters, also known as the Houthis, targeted the Islamic Kingdom with missiles.
The Houthis have warned aviation companies against using Saudi airspace as they announced a ban. This will be
the broad focus of my video today. So, please stay tuned. So, as I feared, the Iran war is unstoppable. Now, it seems
1 minutethat the deranged occupant of the White House has made another massive miscalculation on Iran by announcing the
end of the ceasefire. Last night, Iran retaliated the US military aggressions by targeting key American military
facilities across the Gulf. Kuwait and Bahran were the worst hit. But the biggest development from last night was
the attack on two UAE commercial ships by the IRGC Navy.
And we're just going to bring you some breaking news right now. The Ministry of Defense from the UAE says two national tankers have been targeted by two
Iranian cruise missiles in the southern lane of the straight of Hermus in Omani territorial waters. They also say that
there has been one Indian crew member has been killed and eight others have been wounded including four seriously.
The UAE defense ministry also says that the fires on both tankers have now been brought under control and that it
retains the full right to respond to this escalation. So just to repeat that from the UA Ministry of Defense, two
national tankers have been targeted by two Iranian cruise missiles in Omani waters in the straight of Hormuz. While
the region was burning last night, Trump was daydreaming about controlling the state of Hormuz and making himself
richer. While doing so, he still hoped that rich Gulf countries would help him repeat Venezuela and Iran. and the
Middle East probably would no longer be with us because you saw they sent missiles to five different countries that never even knew they were involved
because they're stone cold. They are crazy and we're not going to put it up. Yeah, I want to be reimbured because we're
protecting a very rich portion of the world. We're spending money and so what we've done is we are going to be reimbursed for protection. We're
protecting by the countries that we're uh helping. For instance, you look at the five countries. You have Saudi
Arabia, you have uh UAE, you have Qatar or Qatar as I always say, you have Qatar, Bahrain, and by the way, you have
others. You have Kuwait and you have others and they will do very well, but we think it's appropriate that we don't need them. You know, we have more oil than any other country in the world.
When you add Venezuela has which has been amazing when you which has tremendous amounts of oil that we control. When you add Venezuela and
everything else, we have more than 50% of the world supply. We don't need it.
Clip. Even four months after this illegal war, this delusional fool hasn't realized that Iran was no Venezuela and
there was no Deli Rodriguez in Iran willing to disgrace a powerful legacy like how this woman did to her
revolutionary father. As I said before, the last night's Iranian strikes largely focused on Bahran and Kuwait. In Bahran,
4 minutesthe IRGC Navy struck several weapons depots, a satellite communications center and housing for US personnel at
the Jufair base. Iran has called its latest military response operation Nasutu.
There were also reports of powerful explosions rocking Moaf Salty air base in eastern Jordan. Meanwhile, a
Republican lawmaker has sensationally said that he mourned the loss of hundreds of US soldiers in the Iran war as he welcomed the resumption of
American military transgressions. Mind you, Iran has always claimed to kill hundreds of American soldiers during the
40-day war. But the US military had disputed this claim, stating that only 13 soldiers had died in Iranian
retaliatory strikes. But this lawmaker said this.
Do you support the the bombing that has resumed tonight? Do you think that's the right move by President Trump? You know, I think it is the right move.
I I wish we didn't have to do it. I hate war. Uh President Eisenhower said that many times. I hate war as only a soldier who lived it can. And unfortunately,
there's a price we have to pay for our freedoms, for the safety and security of your families. Uh we sometimes have to use our military forces, and I'm so
grateful uh for the military forces that the jobs are done. I mourn the loss of the 13 soldiers we've lost, the hundreds of soldiers we've we've lost. I I think
I think the president has to rip the band-aid off and and finish the job, unfortunately.
And then this happened in this interview with Salem News Channel. Trump said that he hit Iran with nuclear, his word, not
mine, to destroy the Islamic Republic's nuclear capabilities.
He's done a good job. If I wasn't around or if BB wasn't around, especially the combination, Israel would not exist
today. We wouldn't have hit him with the B2 bombers. You know, they were going to have a a nuclear weapon within two weeks. Had I not hit them with a
nuclear, within two to four weeks, they would have had a nuclear weapon. And once they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it and you wouldn't even have Israel around. No, BB's good.
You can call it a slip of the tongue or brazen admission, but the fact that he didn't clarify or correct himself has left social media users agast.
Meanwhile, the Iranians have remained firm in their resolve to not let Trump bully them again. Iran's army
spokesperson Brigadier General Acamia said that the state of foremost will never be opened through war, aggression
or American transgressions, adding that the respect of the rights of the Iranian people is the only way to open the state
of Hormos. He also said that the Iranians were obligated to avenge the blood of the martyrs, especially that of
the martyred leader of the Islamic Revolution. his words. Ibrahim Azizi, chairman of the National Security
Committee of Iran's Parliament, tweeted, and I quote, "Last night, coinciding with the downing of US drones, the
strategic action for the security and sustainable progress of the state of the Persian Gulf bill was formally
introduced in Iran's parliament. We remain steadfast in defending our red lines, particularly regarding the management of the state of Foremost.
This is the first step.
Subsequent measures are forthcoming. End quote. Elsewhere, the Houthis have warned international airlines against flying through Saudi airspace. The
Saudibacked Yemeni government had earlier claimed responsibility for bombing the Sana airport to prevent the landing of an Iranian passenger plane.
But the Houthis have held Saudi Arabia responsible for this bombing and retaliated with missile attack on the
Islamic Kingdom. And now the Houthis have claimed to impose an airspace ban over Saudi Arabia. There are reports of
Saudi Arabia launching air strikes on Yemen's Sada governorate. So it looks pretty crazy to me. It doesn't look like
there is any future to the peace talks now. In fact, some reports are indicating that Iran would walk out of the peace talks. Why shouldn't they?
Look, Trump made an object surrender.
while signing theou and when he realized what a catastrophic blunder he had committed ahead of midterm pose he
decided to not honor the terms of theou hence the latest round of military strikes but this isn't going to help him
further what he doesn't realize is that he has landed himself in a quagogmire called Iran there doesn't appear to be
any easy escape route here but far from learning the lesson these rogue members of the American administration are busy
dismantling every single institution which seeks to keep their depravity in check. Now thug Marco Rubio wants to
destroy the International Criminal Court.
For 250 years, Americans have governed ourselves as a free and sovereign people. We choose our own leaders. We determine our own laws. And when we're
accused of a crime, we stand for judgment before a jury of our own peers.
This is the essential and indispensable feature of our form of government. It is the foundation of our shared way of life. But today, powerful people in far
away places want to take that away from us. They believe that they should be in charge of your laws, of your country, your life. And they don't care whether
or not you agree. Halfway across the world, there's an institution that calls itself the International Criminal Court.
Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't. But chances are you don't know the names of its judges, of its prosecutors, or its president. and you
shouldn't have to. But as we speak, the ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets or
missiles, but with statutes and compacts and the force of so-called international law. When the ICC was born 24 years ago,
they told us that it was merely a narrow backs stop, a global court that would step in to prosecute only the gravest offenses, things like genocide and war
crimes, and only when a nation's courts were unable to prosecute them on their own.
But the truth is, it was something far more radical and extreme. It was a global tribunal staffed by unelected
globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited.
The danger of this global court has only continued to grow. Today, it threatens every aspect of our political and legal system. Border Patrol agents removing violent criminals from our country.
American Marines risking their lives to defend our homeland. prosecutors working to dismantle terrorist plots to attack
and kill Americans. If we stand idle, all of them would be at the mercy of foreign judges thousands of miles away,
facing the constant risk of prosecution and even imprisonment for the so-called crime of defending their own country.
11 minutesThe American people never agreed to any of this and they never will. Read the words of our Declaration of
Independence. We fought a revolution against a foreign power transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended
offenses. Independence is our birthright. We will never let foreign bureaucrats take that away from us. This
administration will not sit by as the ICC and its allies seek to threaten our people. If they believe they can deprive us of our sovereignty, we will teach
them the full meaning of American resolve.
The motive is clear. How dare this court issue arrest warrant against a barbaric war criminal and traded bloodthirsty
terrorist Benjamin Netanyao. The more these lunatics and maniacs open their mouth, the more they are exposing
themselves and alienating their own people in the US. That's it from me now.
I will return with more updates at the end of the day. Thank you so 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.

Jeremy Scahill and Ro Khanna CLASH Over Palestinian Armed Resistance and Iron Dome
Drop Site News
Jul 14, 2026



Transcript

Representative Connor, I I wanted to say like I I I think objectively a lot of people um who have been deeply concerned
about uh the apartheid state um of Israel uh the genocide in Gaza um find it refreshing to hear uh a member of
Congress speak in this way and the fact that you also have have used this opportunity to try to highlight uh specific cases of Palestinians. Um, I
want to ask you though what you think the consequences for Israel should be, not just of these actions, but also for
the mass murder of uh, a documented roughly 80,000 people. It's probably much higher than that in Gaza, a significant portion of whom are
children. I've heard you talk about sanctioning individuals. Uh, I've heard the framing that you and Bernie Sanders offer about um offensive weapons or
weapons that kill civilians, but I've also heard your defense of Iron Dome.
And I want to push you on this because I think a lot of the critique of you from pro Palestine people and from Palestinians is that the position you're
advocating basically amounts to we need to make sure that the sniper is protected so that he can continue sniping.
Well, if you look I appreciate the the question and I will uh answer it specifically, but if you look at all the things I've called for, I've said zero
aid to Israel and supporting the Massie amendment that does that. That's going to be a big vote coming up this week.
I've said no military sales to Israel uh that are used to kill civilians. I've
said no uh military integration and led the fight to repeal section 224 and 219 which is
Netanyahu's end run where they would just co-produce uh the the these uh the military. I said we should call it apartheid and recognize uh the genocide.
So these are on a scale of 1 to 10 you know it's like going from 1 to seven or eight and the debate is okay nine or 10
do I an arms embargo completely which I have not supported would say Israel can't even get or produce from anyone
defensive uh the iron dome and I guess my view is you know anyone should be able to protect civilian life but that's
not America supporting it. Uh I do think though that there is something that the next administration could do within the
first 100 days. Instead of just saying, "Okay, we're going to talk abstractly about this long peace process." Demand
the arrest of Yan Lebby and extremist settlers within 100 days. Demand the destruction of every outpost within 100 days. Demand the destruction of illegal
settlements within 100 days. demand justice for Palestinians and Palestinian people so that they stop getting terrorized within a 100 days. That
doesn't have to be some dialogue. That needs to be a directive from the American administration saying Israel must do this. And we need to be taking
steps as we get towards a broader peace in that direction. I think that's one of the things that came out of this trip, the immediacy of uh the suffering of Palestinians.
I don't I I still don't think this is answering the question. I mean, tell me where I'm wrong here. What you're advocating for, we are talking about not
just Netanyahu, you Sanders always says Netanyahu and his extremist right-wing government, but if you look at public public opinion polling, there is
widespread support for open genocidal policies. In fact, Netanyahu is often criticized by his political opponents
for not having finished the job in Gaza or in Lebanon or elsewhere. And I want to know why it is that you are stopping
on this because so much of what you're saying you're it's one of the clearest recognitions of the issue that you could hear from an American politician and yet
um you you you still are saying but the sniper needs to have protection.
It's not the sniper. It's saying that the that we're not just so we there's no uh ambiguity on my position uh which is
also the position of of of Sanders or AOC or others as I understand it. It is that we have zero military aid to uh
Israel that we have no military sales that uh are used to kill military weapons that are used to be killing civilians. So that's the drop. I would
argue Iron Dome is used to kill I would argue Iron Dome is used to kill civilians because it allows the Israelis to have this American backing to operate
with impunity by openly saying that I support this military technology for Israel. What you're saying is that when
Israel attacks other uh countries who have a right to fight back that the United that my position is that that
sniper I wish he wasn't doing the sniping but that sniper has a right uh to have the United States defending their sniping. But I but I don't think
that that's the case. If we're stopping all military aid and we're stopping giving them the the weapons to to kill others and we're stopping protecting
them at the UN and we're demanding the the the actions uh in terms of justice.
I don't think that that their policies whether it's would you say this about apartheid South Africa? I've heard you talk about Well, because I think because
Give me another example where you say it's okay to to continue any level of support for an openly genocidal society that has mass murdered 80,000 people,
more than 300 media workers, has invaded Lebanon, has bombed Iran, and you're saying, "Oh, but we need to protect civilians." This isn't about protecting
civilians. The greatest threat to their civilians is their policy. And so I don't understand why you have even one qualified shred of support for a uh
sniper mass murderer masquerading as the only democracy in the Middle East.
Well, but I don't I'm not saying that the United States should be supporting the funding for Iron Dome. Just so be very clear. I'm saying that we shouldn't
be restricting Israel from being able to get the Iron Dome or be able to develop the Iron Dome technology. Why stop there? Everything else you're
saying makes so much sense. Why do you stop there? It feels to me like you're trying to have it both ways on this issue. So you can say, "Well, I actually support uh, you know, defending the Israeli civilians." You're not defending Israeli civilians with that policy.
You're defending the snipers ability to keep killing because it won't face the ultimate accountability, which is a total embargo on all support for an aparttheid state.
Yeah. I I don't think you have to put at risk. There are, you would agree there are innocent civilians in Israel, right?
Including uh 20% being uh Arab-Israelis.
I mean, I I just don't think that you have to put their lives at risk to achieve the ends of stopping the
apartheid, stopping the occupation. Uh, Israel puts their lives at risk by Israel puts their lives at risk by waging genocidal wars with the support
of a significant portion of its population and by enabling them by saying, "Well, the sniper still needs to have uh his cover or or well, you know,
I stop at this thing." What you're saying is that the accountability then doesn't lie on on American policy toward Israel. It's sort of something abstract.
Well, Israeli civilians could die.
Israeli civilians are dying in these attacks because of the apartheid. You know, Palestinian do Palestinians have a right to kill Israeli soldiers,
congressman, on October 7th when they attacked the military bases in the Gaza envelope. Did the Kasam brigades and suruds have a right to kill Israeli soldiers? Yes or no?
Who? On October 7th, did Palestinians have a right to to attack Israeli military bases in the Gaza envelope? Yes or no?
I mean, I I think October 7th attack was a terrorist attack. So, I don't a terrorist attack when they the first targets that were hit on the morning of October 7th were multiple military
bases. Did Palestinian forces have a right to attack those military bases?
I I am not for violent violence again in in any way. I mean, I am for making sure
8 minutesthat we uh end the Do they have a right to do it?
Congressman, do they have a right to attack Israeli soldiers?
No, I'm not I'm not going to say that Hamas had a right to attack Israeli soldiers or is or kill Israelis. Like, I don't I don't think that advances peace
or or or advances uh uh Palestinian statethood. Did is did Israel have a
right to drop a single bomb in Gaza in response to October 7th?
I believe Israel had the right to get get people who killed uh the civilians, but not in the way they went about it, which is I which I've said is genocide.
But the Palestinians don't have a right to attack the very military bases that are running the killing operations on October 6th, 2023 or October 5th, 2023.
It's a double standard. You're saying there are ways that Israel should be able to kill Palestinians, but there is never a condition under which
Palestinians can attack armed uniformed soldiers of a force that is still considered an occupying force under
international law. I don't make it make sense to me how those I come from a tradition of King and Gandhi. My father grandfather was uh in
jail uh for I'm aware of your family history. Do you think King would say, "Well, it's there's certain they can they can attack the Vietkong, but I don't want them to
kill uh I don't I don't think anyone I don't I don't I don't know what Gandhi would say. I don't think my grandfather would say that the Palestinians should have
armed resistance to uh Israeli occupation. I think they would argue for the a much more nonviolent uh approach.
But America, I think, in ending aid, uh, in ending military sales, uh, in not
being a defender of the of Israel, uh, in the UN, just, uh, vetoing resolutions
against Israel would make tremendous progress. I mean, you know, maybe I'm I we're on a scale of 1 to 10 and I you
you at a 10, and I'm saying let's go to a 6, seven, eight. I don't know where that would be. And right now, America's at a one. We're at a 10 because we're at
a 10 because of a genocide that was enabled, supported, armed, and funded by the United States. And I am baffled as to how you can say that Israel had a
right to drop a single bomb on Gaza in response to October 7th, but Palestinians, according to you, have no right whatsoever to ever kill an Israeli occupation.
Palestinians have right to justice, which is uh in the case.
Do they have a right to armed resistance against Israeli occupation soldiers in uniform? Do they ever have a right to kill an Israeli soldier?
I think if it's a self-defense, if they're if they feel like they're uh there there's an illegal attack on them
by a violent settler or by a Israeli soldier and that that that's illegal the in in in a school or on a civilian uh
and then uh of course they should have justice. But the entire thing is illegal.
Representative Kana, the entire occupation of Gaza, the managing their diet, the mowing the lawn, the constant
killing of them, the the perspective of many Palestinians is that they're being collectively punished and they're fighting for their very existence, and
that the bases that surround Gaza were the primary murderers on a military level of the population of Gaza. So what
I'm understanding, whether it's Hamas and Islamic Jihad or its independent Palestinians, how is it that you can stand here and in any way justify the
Israelis dropping bombs on Gaza, but never find a way in which it's justifiable for Palestinians to kill an armed soldier of an a force that is
under international law an occupation force? I don't understand it. Consider this position. Well, I I I will look at
it, but I don't think that the solution in that area is to encourage.
But you're afraid of being called pro Hamas. That's that's what this is boils down to. Because I bet if if we were talking off the record privately and I said this to you, you would acknowledge
that people around the world have a right to resistance by all means necessary.
Well, I've always been peaceful resistance, you know.
But how is peaceful resistance saying the Israelis just like it's under segregation? I wouldn't have said that. go kill people
who are uh engaged in segregation against you. I mean, I'm much more Dr.
King than Malcolm X. I mean, I Are you much more slave rebellions were justified against people that were raping, hanging, murdering Africans who
had been kidnapped? I mean, I I'm I'm sorry. I I spend most of my day and night talking with Palestinians, working with Palestinians. My colleague Hosam
Shabbat was by way most of the Palestinians I met most of the Palestinians I met use force. Most of the Palestinians I met and maybe a few
days are not talking about the kind of armed resistance that you are. They just want to live their lives in dignity and peace and not have the Israeli uh settlers oppress them.
But you're a member of the United States Congress who is justifying albeit you've been very critical of Israel's war against Gaza. But you seem to be drawing
a line that says that there are some cases in which Israel is justified to attack Palestinians, but only those responsible for October 7th. But you
can't find a shred of justification for any Palestinian to attack the very armed forces operating under a nation state
flag that is backed by the United States. And you're saying that there is no condition under which a Palestinian has a right to kill soldiers who are
posted at military bases enforcing by murder and forced starvation and deprivation an illegal occupation of
Gaza. That's what doesn't make sense to me. I don't see how you reconcile those two positions because I think that the the the uh
armed resistance is is only going to be ineffective given the power differentials is similar to what Gandhi
thought in terms of how he took on the British Empire and that uh having a moral force of civil resistance and
appealing to the world's conscience is going to be much better chance of getting dignity 2019 the Palestinian Inians organized
the great march of return which was a mass nonviolent mobilization at the gates of the concentration camp walls and fence in Gaza and you know what
Israeli soldiers did representative they had a competition to who could shoot the most kneecaps of Palestinians
that were backed by Yakya Sinoir the head of Hamas so there's a track record and there's a context you're talking about a tactical issues the Palestinians
have tried that the Palestinians did I think that the I think opinion is down I I think opinion is shifting now in
America where th those kind of approaches uh would get a better reception in in the United States. Masa, what do you think?
We talked a bit about this because I remember that you asked something along the lines of if Hamas was
um you know the governing if there was a state and Hamas was you know the governing body would we be okay with
that and I responded and said Hamas has been very very vocal that it's been from the beginning Hamas would not exist if
there wasn't an occupation the second the occupation ceases to exist is the second that the need to resist ceases to
exist. Right. So it's I see what you're saying, but I I agree with Jeremy in the sense that there is a um there's a
double standard to what you are saying and we have seen you've seen yourself now that you've been to the West Bank.
A lot of the these parents that are talking about their their kids being murdered can't even go to where their son was murdered without a bulletproof
vest on. It is a violent place. Whether or not we want to we could talk about peace but it's the violence is there and the only way a lot of times is to defend
yourself. It it's with violence which we which is something that is stripped of the Palestinian citizen. There is I
could I could be in my house and I could have 50 settlers. I talked to an American citizen in Darede 50 settlers came to her house and the Israeli police
said why don't you defend yourself and she said it's I would be the one that gets shot if I defended myself. So there are a lot of cases where as much as we
want to be, you know, romantic about the situation, we have the second amendment here in in in the states where, you know, a lot of
people would say this is the safest place in the world. Sometimes the only way to defend yourself is with, you
know, armed resistance. So I don't know. uh we we've we talked about this and I and I do appreciate
that you did you you were listening to people because we did you you had these conversations on the ground but I do still think that there's some room there
to understand that this isn't just arms to resistance doesn't exist just
because you know um it it's these are violent people. It's it's it's the it's the final. We've
17 minutestried we've tried the UN. We've tried uh we've tried the Oslo Accords. We tried everything. In the end, this is what needs to happen, you know.
Yeah. I just think the question is whether shifted in American foreign policy can uh open the doors to towards
uh ending the occupation uh and uh and and pursuing justice. But
uh you know I I yeah I'll I'll leave my position there.
the I mean one way I think about it is if you're not going to acknowledge the right of you know armed resistance the
playing field has to be leveled somehow like what what is what like if we're not talking about an arms
embargo you have a state that is relentlessly violent toward a captive population
what would it take and and you know Congress is about to fuse the Israeli an American military. And so, yeah.
Yeah. I would take stop stripping that provision, stopping the military sales, stopping the aid, uh making sure that
the uh there were trials at the ICCI, ICJ, to hold uh people accountable for
the war crimes, for the genocide, uh and uh making sure that uh we weren't
protecting uh Israel's apartheid or genocide in in international bodies and
working with other countries to to to uh to to push for uh justice in in in in
the region. I I guess my view is that that would make significant progress.
Uh, and while while you were there, um, just real quickly, um, Rahm Emanuel went to Tel Aviv at the same time that you were
there. He he had an interesting moment, I thought, where he said the uh, the Israeli banking system needed to
be sanctioned and any Israeli corporation needed to be sanctioned if it was at all operating in occupied territory.
And the his questioner point pushed back and said, "Well, that's the entire Israeli economy. You would be sanctioning the entire banking system
and basically every company in Israel." And Ron Manuel said, "Yes, we need to sanction the the S part of BDS has
always been the one with the the sharpest teeth." Um, would you would you support a full
sanctioning of the Israeli banking system if there are banks that are operating? Yeah.
Yeah. And government officials and you know Yes. Because then at that point then they can't they effectively can barely buy anything let you know they
wouldn't be able to buy Iron Dome components if they'd made it indigenously I suppose domestically they could do it but
that I I haven't read the details of Emanuel's speech but I mean is he calling for broad-based sanctions on all the financial institutions or sanctions
on the financial institutions who lend to the settlements?
Well, that's all of them. Or or have any business whatsoever in in illegal.
My guess is what you would then see is the Israeli banks cutting off the the funding and the subsidies that to to for the settlements, which is uh which would be significant.
Yeah. Yeah.
Which way the settlements would collapse. You're saying they would have to. I mean, how do you I don't know how you do it without financing.
Yeah. It'd be interesting. Um, any anything else?
Um, well, no. A good good conversation always with Jeremy is very very passionate. Uh and uh you know I I I
would just hope that people see the Palestinian stories that we heard the um apartheid
like conditions and the commitment to to bring bring justice and reform and uh
you know I'm I'm not uh where Jeremy is but I'm certainly an uh clear outlier with a few other people on the issue and trying to bring uh bring real justice.
All right.
I app I appreciate very much the the engagement. Um I know that's that's one thing that you're very famous for across the you're willing to argue.
Well, you know, I am a student of uh Lincoln. Not as great of course, but uh you know, there were a lot of
abolitionists, but uh the the art of American politics in my view is to do what is moral but also possible. And I'm
not saying I have the right judgment, but it's not uh, you know, it's not not easy to build that kind of consensus.
22 minutesWell, we we certainly appreciate the engagement, Representative Roana. Appreciate it. Good seeing you.
Take care. Talk to you soon. Thank you.
Uh before we bring in um Abdullah Arian, I want to actually underline the point that he just alluded to that may escape some kind of non-Lincoln heads.
So Lincoln uh was throughout his life anti-slavery, but he was never an abolitionist. And
there the difference during that period was that the abolitionists were seen to be the crazy people like
they were the ones they were the radicals. They were they were like outside of kind of respectable politics.
You could be anti-slavery without being abolitionist. And it's very strange to I think from our perspective now to understand these political distinctions,
right? But Lincoln was friends and allies with a lot of abolitionists. And so when he when he ran,
uh, the abolitionists very quietly kind of told all of the rest of the abolitionists, he's not going to say the things we want him to say, but he's actually with us.
And that was a message that can resonated actually with the South. The South believed it, and that's why the
South seceded on on his election. like he didn't push them out. The South led when he was elected. But I think what um
Roana was saying right there is that Jeremy's the crazy abolitionist.
He's he's willing to say publicly what what I actually believe. Um because as he said, there's it's the art of building these coalitions like that.
What Lincoln was doing was putting together a coalition that included the abolitionist towards the end of ending slavery, but he wasn't willing to go out and say it. That's what I read into
that. I might be reading too much into it. What What did And then we'll move to to Abdullah, but what did you guys I'm
24 minutescurious for both of your take on his um on his responses there.
Well, I in general, I mean, he's no he's no longer here, so I I don't want to continue litigating this issue, but um
you know, I on the one hand I um I I I do credit uh Roana with uh being willing to engage. You know, there have been a
handful of uh interviews I've seen, particularly when he's gone on with people who are on the left side of the spectrum. I mean, of course, you know, I was just watching clips of him on on Fox
News, and I think it's important to point out that much of the media narrative about this from the right has been calling him a liar, um, you know,
questioning his patriotism, you know, etc. Um, and so, you know, but, um, we we also know that many many of our
colleagues in the broader independent media landscape have interviewed him and he's talked about this. So I just I I I feel it's something that I I think is
not interrogated enough in our political life since the onset of this genocide in particular, but this is also the story of Palestine for a very long time is
that you have political figures from AOC to Bernie Sanders who uh and with Sanders is a long track record who try to project a certain image of being in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Um but you always hit a point where they carve out their own version of a Palestine exception. And and so, you
know, I I I feel like when we have, you know, we so much of what you're doing is reporting
uh you know, from Gaza, uh from the occupied West Bank, we've had colleagues murdered. We're immersed in this because
we believe in it. Um and you know, and so it's it's not like I'm just uh throwing gotcha questions at him. Um,
what what what I'm asking him is based on the on on actual relationships with Palestinians, knowing Palestinians who've been murdered, having Palestinian
friends who've had 200 plus members of their family murdered in Gaza, looking at public opinion polling on the question of armed resistance in Palestine. You can't cherrypick and say,
"Well, the people that I talked to as an American congressman over the course of an hour one day or a dinner one night, um, this is representative of the Palestinian people." I don't think many
Palestinians are going to run up to Roana and have the first thing that they say the we have a right to armed resistance. He's a member of Congress visiting an area of the occupied West
Bank whereas Mesa has pointed out there are a lot of people who also hold American passports there. And so Ro, you know, Roana uh was was doing his public
service in a way that makes sense, but you can't pretend to speak in general for the Palestinian people as a whole based on some conversations you had over
the course of a of a few days. And so all all of which is to say uh that you know Rohana should be given credit for
the work that he's done on this. It's unusual to have an American uh political figure do what he's done, but that doesn't mean that our job as journalists
is just to fluff him up. And you know, and so I I this is something that I think really needs to be put in front of people like Bernie Sanders or Roanda
where we say, "Yeah, there's a lot of things that I agree with." But on this issue, I mean, I I really I I I'm I'm glad that we had this interaction
because it's clarifying to hear him say um that there isn't a justification for Palestinians even to kill Israeli
occupation soldiers, but there is a justification to drop bombs on Gaza. To me, it's in the public service to have that discourse with an elected member of
Congress who actually is pretty good on this issue on most aspects of it because many Palestinians, if they were to say
what I'm saying, fear they would be arrested, you know, or that they they their lives would end. You know, how many messages I get from Palestinian
colleagues of mine who say, "You're saying things that would get me arrested." And I'm aware of that. And part of why I I I do ask these questions or I
interview the people that I do or I try to report on the perspectives that I do and we do this at dropsite is is is because it's our duty to do it, right? Somebody has to.
Yeah. A couple things I want to point out too is that the West Bank um there is a bourgeoisi
class, you know, and and whenever Ro pointed pointed out that before he took this trip, if he would go on these trips
to Israel, they would take him to Ramallah, he would spend some time with Abbas, they would go to a nice restaurant, whatever. there the people
that he saw this time or the people that I saw him interact with again I keep repeating American citizens their experience is completely different than
the people in refugee camps in Tularam or in Janine um or NMPS and those are the conversations where he would have had uh where he would have talked about
arms resistance because there are weapons there and they've been killed not only by the Israeli military but by the PA and so there's more that he what
what Jeremy's saying is correct in the sense that He's he had a few conversations and I think it it it enlightened him. But the West Bank shouldn't be seen as just a monolith.
There are multiple experiences which is by design that the the population is very very fractured and everybody has their own version of the occupation. So
and the other thing is that I think we're past my dad's generation was the generation of Palestinians are human.
That was their argument to to the world is like just please see us as human. I think we're past that. And it's we're we
are we're not just human. We deserve we deserve the same rights as anybody else.
We deserve a military. We deserve, you know, free access. We deserve connection to the world. It's not just to see I I
think we're past the point of um looking at us as just victims. It's now Palestinians are demanding we're we're
talking face to face now. We're not, it's not just, you know, can you protect me? And so that's I mean I I really
appreciate what we saw here today because I do I don't want us to get into the into the the practice of just
applauding for people for looking and for speaking out whenever we see countries who who have joined like the H group that have but have made millions
with their with their relationships with Israel on the side like we we we are in that point of of um the movement I guess.
Yes. You know, Mesa, we have Abdullah Alaran is is standing by, but Mesa Mustafa just did some really important reporting from the occupied West Bank,
and we'll uh we'll make sure to re-up that also in the context of this um on our uh social media feeds. And Ma Mesa,
thanks so much for uh for being on the ground there and doing such terrific reporting. Of course. Thank you guys.

BIG ESCALATION: Iran Ally To Unleash 'THERMONUCLEAR' Weapon Against U.S. & Its Allies In Mideast?
Times Of India
Jul 14, 2026

The Middle East is facing a dangerous new escalation. While global attention remains focused on the Strait of Hormuz and the growing U.S.-Iran confrontation, Yemen's Houthi movement has issued a major warning that could reshape global energy markets. A senior Houthi official says the group is prepared to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait if Saudi Arabia continues attacks on Yemen's critical infrastructure. The warning comes amid rising tensions involving the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis, raising fears that two of the world's most strategic maritime chokepoints could be disrupted simultaneously.



Transcript

The Middle East may be on the verge of an economic earthquake. And this time, it's not just the Straight of Hormuz
that's in the crosshairs. One of Iran's top allies in the Middle East has threatened to choke what a Putin aid
described as Thrron's thermonuclear weapon. While the world's attention remains fixed on the escalating US Iran
confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz, where attacks on commercial vessels are disrupting global shipping and costing
lives. A second equally critical maritime choke point is now under an even bigger threat.
The Bob Elmand Debb Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping corridors connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aiden, is now at the center of fresh
warnings from Iran linked Yemen's Houthy movement. And if this waterway is blocked alongside Hormuz, the
consequences could be felt across the global economy, from oil prices and inflation to supply chains and international trade.
A senior Houthi official, Muhammad Al Farra, has warned that the movement's armed forces are prepared to shut down
the Bob El Manddeb Strait if Saudi Arabia continues targeting Yemen's critical infrastructure. According to
him, Washington is encouraging Riad to intensify military action against Yemen, a move he says would only push the region closer to a much wider conflict.
Al Farra went even further, warning that if the situation continues to deteriorate, the Bob Elmanddeb Strait
and the Strait of Hormuz could be closed together in what he described as an operational alliance. Such a scenario,
he claimed, could send global oil prices soaring to $200 a barrel, triggering a massive shock to the global economy.
Linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aiden and ultimately the Suez Canal, the Bob Eland Strait is only about 29 km
wide at its narrowest point, forcing ships into two narrow shipping lanes for inbound and outbound traffic.
This narrow passage carries roughly 30% of global container trade along with a significant share of the world's crude oil and liqufied natural gas shipments.
Any prolonged disruption here would not only delay cargo, but could also force vessels to take the much longer route
around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, increasing shipping costs, transit times, and pressure on global energy markets.
This is the same shipping route Russian President Vladimir Putin's right-hand man warned could serve as Iran's
thermonuclear weapon in its war with Washington.
I believe that Iran has in its arsenal not only this nuclear weapon but also a
thermonuclear weapon, namely the Bob Al-Mandab Strait, which could be used to block all oil and other shipments should military conflicts arise.
With tensions already running high in the Straight of Hormuz, the possibility of a second strategic choke point coming under threat is now raising fears that
the Middle East could be moving closer to a much broader regional war, one that could have consequences far beyond the region itself.
[music]
This is the dramatic moment an Iranian Mahan airjet touched down in Houthi controlled Houdeta, sending clouds of
dust across the runway and triggering panic among passengers on board. Just moments earlier, the aircraft had been
preparing to land at Sana International Airport. But at the last moment, [music] everything changed. Why? because Yemen's
internationally recognized [music] government says it launched strikes around Sana airport in an effort to prevent the Iranian aircraft from
landing. According to reports, this was no ordinary flight. [music] The aircraft was reportedly carrying a Houthy
delegation returning from funeral ceremonies for Iran's former Supreme Leader Ali [music] Kam along with medical patients and stranded civilians.
For those on board, [music] it was a terrifying near miss. Iran's FARS news agency reported that the aircraft was forced to divert to Houdeta following
the attack. Footage later showed the Mahan airjet safely [music] landing with passengers disembarking and being welcomed by Houthi representatives.
Houthi broadcaster Al- Masira quoted the group's [music] transport minister as saying the Iranian aircraft has landed on the homeland soil carrying medical
patients, stranded [music] civilians, and the official delegation of the Republic of Yemen. Sana and much of [music] northern Yemen, including the
strategic Red Sea port of Huda, is controlled by the Iran aligned Houthis.
[music] Yemen's internationally recognized government, backed by Saudi Arabia and several [music] Gulf states, operates from the southern city of Aiden.
Before the reported strikes, Yemen's Defense Ministry issued an urgent warning, ordering civilians, airport workers, diplomatic missions, [music]
and humanitarian organizations to evacuate Sauna International Airport and its surrounding areas until further
notice. The confrontation did not end there. The Iranbacked Houthis rejected the government's version of events and
instead accused Saudi Arabia of carrying [music] out the strikes on Sana International Airport. The accusations quickly pushed the region closer to
[music] another dangerous escalation. In response, the Houthis launched missile attacks towards Saudi Arabia, [music]
6 minutesshattering a 4-year period of relative calm between the kingdom and the Iran aligned group. Houthi rebels launched [music] missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia's Abba International Airport.
Houthi [music] military spokesperson Yaya Sari described the reported strikes as a blatant aggression, warning that they had brought the fragile truce to an
end. The Yemen armed forces carried out a qualitative military operation targeting Aba International Airport
using a number of ballistic missiles and drones. The operation successfully achieved its objectives. Thanks be to God.
The Saudi enemy by its reckless decision to unjustly attack Sana International Airport bears full responsibility and
the dire consequences for this brutal aggression which serves the American Zionist enemy and all the repercussions
that follow. The Yemen armed forces confirm their determination to proceed with the right to repel the aggression
and lift the unjust siege on our country. In this context, we warn all airlines against flying through Saudi
airspace and they must take our warnings seriously until the siege on Sana International Airport is lifted.
With missiles flying [music] once again, rival narratives colliding, and regional powers trading accusations, fears are mounting that Yemen could once again
become the [music] latest front in the widening Middle East conflict.
News never stops. The world keeps turning and every turn tells a story.
Wars, elections, geopolitics, Davids versus Goliaths. While everyone is celebrating the US [music] China trade
tour, Trump has been quietly doing something else across Asia.
Were once home to the ancient Silk Road [music] connecting east and west.
But who's connecting the dots? Who's decoding the global storm? [music] Welcome to Times of India videos.
We decode the shifting grains of geopolitics to you from Washington to Wuhan.
[music]
Everything everywhere all at once.
Just two years ago, Canada was one of the most popular countries for Indian students.
From Davos to Delhi, we track the decisions that move markets, shift policies and shape the future. No
jargon, no bias, just clear, credible global journalism. Because understanding
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And that's what we do best. At Times of India videos, we don't just tell stories, we build perspective. We connect the dots between what's global
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It's fast. It's fearless. It's making sense of the changing world order. Times
of India videos because your world view is just a tap away.

EX-CIA: America Is Running OUT of War Fuel-Will the US and Iran Go Back to War IN 14 HOURS?
Transition Protocol
Jul 13, 2026 #StraitOfHormuz #IranUSWar #BreakingNews

Is the Strait of Hormuz open or closed? While Washington and Tehran trade contradictory claims — and after Iranian strikes on a Cyprus-flagged ship triggered a 140-target US missile assault and Iranian retaliation across Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, and Oman — ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson lays out the countdown almost no one is covering: America's supply of sour crude, the oil that makes diesel and jet fuel, is nearly exhausted. In this July 13 emergency briefing, Johnson and Dr. Zulfiqar Ali connect the fuel math to the Pentagon's stood-down war rooms, Iran's NPT-withdrawal threat, the Yemen–Saudi flashpoint, and the back-channel ultimatum sources say Pakistan, Turkey, and Qatar are preparing for the White House.

Larry Johnson is a former CIA analyst and State Department counterterrorism official who spent 23 years scripting exercises for US Special Operations Forces; Dr. Zulfiqar Ali reports with direct sources across Pakistan, Iran, and the Gulf. Where our reporting is source-based and not yet independently verified, we say so on screen.

Transition Protocol is a source-driven geopolitics channel: de-dollarization, BRICS, the multipolar world, and the wars reshaping the global economy. Subscribe and turn on notifications for briefings the mainstream runs a week behind.



Transcript

Day 45 falls roughly on April 7th or April 15th.
Those dates are important because remember that's when the United States was earnestly seeking a ceasefire with
Iran. It was because of the oil the oil shortage. Now the US took some proactive
steps starting on March 11th to withdraw from the strategic petroleum reserve.
Again the SPR is not one big tank. It's it's pretty complicated system.
Today is July 13th, a very important day in the developments that are taking place uh in the western Asia sector
where Iran and the United States are locked in battle. Uh implications are for all the world because the state of
Armos is effectively closed. I have with me my very dear friend and colleague with many years of experience with the
CIA, very knowledgeable about all these issues and I his name is Larry Johnson.
You have heard from him, you like him and he is a founding member of transition protocol. This is a a show a
channel in which you are invited to listen to directly sourced information from those corners of the world that impact you. So Larry, please go ahead.
Hi there Z. Uh yeah, look, we're um I know we were hopeful, say more than a
week ago, that perhaps uh the there there was let's call it some some hope
that negotiations would resume that the United States would live up to and abide by theou.
Uh clearly uh theou is dead uh in my view. Uh the ceasefire
dead uh not not going to be revised anytime soon. Uh the United States
foolishly has decided to embark on a uh on a policy of confrontation with Iran.
Frankly, it's a confrontation that it cannot uh win. It cannot. It's premised on the
assumption it can coersse Iran into surrendering into coming back to the negotiating table. Uh although Donald
Trump loudly proclaims that Iran's begging for talks, uh the fact of the matter is as we review the events over
the since February 28th, as was the case back in the the 12-day war in June of
2025, it is the United States that ends up pressuring other countries to seek to
put pressure on Iran to come to talks to find a negotiated settlement.
Uh I I I think uh you know the old expression in the United States often
misqued uh fool fool me once shame on you
fool me twice shame on me. So you know if if you try to cheat me or scam me you
know the first time that happens you know it's it's on you. How dare you do that? But now that I know that you're a
scamster, you're a liar, you're a proaricator, you're a fraud, that if I sit down with you again and
reach any kind of agreement and trust you, that's that's on me. And so from now on,
it's on Iran. Iran should have no doubt whatsoever that the United States is not to be trusted. that the United States
does not live up to a single damn agreement. And we can take what has unfolded as we've seen over the last
week and a half. So the US narrative is that well Iran attack attacked these ships that were trying to sail through
the state of straight of of the straight of Hormuz in the Omani channel and that was just outrageous. That shouldn't have
been allowed. Well, excuse me, but under the language that was contained in the
in the memorandum of agreement or of understanding between the United States and Iran that was signed by Donald Trump and by President Bizian of Iran.
Paragraph 5 stipulated that Iran and only Iran, you know, we've seen I know
Z, you and I have seen some writings by people like the Institute for the Study of War who tried to insist that this was
supposed to be a joint Iranian Omani decision and that uh that that under no circumstances was Iran having permission
to interfere with the passage of any ship wanting to go through the straight.
all complete fabrications, lies. Theou was quite clear. The the only country
with the responsibility for ensuring the safe passage of ships is Iran. No other,
no other Gulf country, no other country in the world, only Iran. And Iran, you know, because that that had been one of
the elements that Iran had submitted initially, that was an Iranian demand.
and Iran in tandem with that developed what are called the Persian Gulf Straight Authority protocols.
The protocols stipulate that any ship wanting to transit the straight of Hormuz, whether through the Iranian channel or the Ammani channel, must
submit paperwork or an application online to the uh PGSA, which will be
reviewed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and that you provide the name of the ship, the name of the
captain, who owns the ship, what's the port, what's the destination of the ship, what cargo is the ship carrying,
and what are the nationalities of the crew? All of this to is for the express
purpose of imposing a blockade on Israel. That no ship headed to Israel, no ship owned by Israel, no ship by
owned by anybody with connection to Israel is going to be allowed through the straight of Hermoose. That is Iran's retaliation against Iran against Israel.
So Iran is playing hard ball on that and has insisted. Uh there have been several instances over the last week and a half
where the United States deliberately encouraged ships, one from Qatar, one from Saudi Arabia, u that uh one from
Cyprus is one of the latest ones. Go ahead, go through the Omani Straits uh tell tell uh Iran to off. You don't
have to fill out any paperwork. And then when Iran respon retaliated as a because it was included in the protocols that
any ship that did not comply would be met with force. Iran meant what it said.
We met them with force and then in response to that the United States used that as an excuse to launch attacks on Iran along the straight of Formoose. Uh
the problem with these attacks is uh they they've not done really any significant damage to Iran but but is a clear violation of Iran's sovereignty.
Iran in return has been uh in a I'll call it gradual escalation that in response to each US attack Iran has hit
more and more targets and hit those targets with more and more force in the latest exchange. And I must admit
I I was wrong or at least I was hoping that in in what has happened in five
previous incidents going back to April 7th that after this initial spate of violence the US would back off, Trump
would make some remarks about oh we were talks have been are back on or the Iranians are seeking talks imminently so
we're going to uh that imply that the negotiations would be back on track. Uh I was hopeful that would happen even as late as this morning. It didn't.
So uh what that means is now the United States is locked on a path of continued
escalation with Iran and Iran is in a position to escalate better than the United States because
uh starting on June 17th, the US began withdrawing military assets from the region. What the United States would now
have to do to re-engage this is to issue new orders, bring these assets back into
theater, which is going to take a few days. But it also creates a tremendous economic problem that very, very few people in the world are talking about.
And here on Transition Protocol, we're one of the few to point it out. And it's it's the difference between sweet crude
and sour crude. Uh sour crude globally is what is used to make diesel and aviation fuel.
It's not to say that you cannot make diesel and aviation fuel from sweet crude. You can.
But that depends upon the refinery how the refineries are set up physically.
An oil refinery is not an oil. All oil refineries are not created or built equally.
They are built to handle specific types of oil. And I'm generalizing. They're built to either handle the sweet crude, they're built to handle the heavy crude.
In the United States, you've got this contradiction. The United States produces an enormous amount of sweet
oil, but 70% of the US oil refineries are
designed to handle the sour oil, the sour crude.
As a result, the US gladly exports sweet oil to Europe and other places where they do have refineries that can handle that.
But when it comes to producing diesel and aviation fuel for the US market as well as globally, you got to have the sour crude.
When the straight of Hormuz was first shut down on the 28th of February, that shut down about 20 to 25% of the world's
supply of sour crude. The United States up to that point in addition to relying on the Pers Persian Gulf for about 10%
of its total imports um it also received sour you know the heavy crude
the sour crude uh from Canada from Mexico and from Venezuela. But the point is neither Canada, Mexico and Venezuela
combined could not make up for the shortfall of what was supposed to come from the Persian Gulf. Now, the reason
the oil shortage didn't hit immediately on the 28th of February is that there were still tankers on the high sea, they
were full of oil. They had to finish their their trip to the United States. That trip took between 35 and 45 days.
Well, lo and behold, day 45 falls roughly on April 7th
or April 15th. Those dates are important because remember that's when the United States was earnestly seeking a ceasefire
with Iran. It was because of the oil the oil shortage. Now the US took some
proactive steps starting on March 11th to withdraw from the strategic petroleum reserve. Again the SPR is not one big
tank. It's it's pretty complicated system. Let's just say that even though you can fill it with a a 100 barrels of
oil, you can only draw it down to about where there's only 20 barrels left because if you draw it below that 20
because this oil is stored in salt caverns, those salt caverns would dissolve once you because you have to inject water to get the oil out of the
ground out of the out of the storage facility. So although on paper the United States looks like it's got in
excess of 140 million barrels, it doesn't. Those 140 million barrels have to stay in there. And what the United
States has been withdrawing at a date rate of 1.4 million barrels per day since March 11th has basically brought
us now to mid July where the supply that the US can draw upon for sour crude is virtually exhausted.
Now is but it's at this time that the United States is seeking has sought this escalation and note the lies that are
coming out of the Pentagon and out of the White House. They claim that the straight of Hormuz is open. It is not.
All you need to do is you go to a site called marinetra.com or you can alternatively go to vesselfinder.com.
Now, what's really interesting throughout this period I've been monitoring over the last four days, there are two uh let's call them yachts,
pleasure craft, sailing back and forth between Kemp's Island and uh Cassab in Oman.
And one of them is called uh the Jersey Devil. It's a US flagship.
The other one is called God G. Uh, both of them are American ships. I I
guarantee these are not I guarantee you these are not pleasure craft out just to enjoy the beauty of the Persian Gulf.
Uh, these are I I would I believe uh collecting intelligence and their intelligence ships. I I wouldn't be
surprised to see them at some point in the next day or two come under fire or be taken captive uh by Iran because they
are clearly not engaged in normal regular uh recreational uh activity.
[snorts] So uh the right now Iran has stepped up its strikes uh in in the
first day of the retaliation to US strikes. It hit Kuwait and Bahrain, fired some missiles in the direction of
US ships that are sitting 200 miles offshore. In the succeeding days though, uh Iran has expanded those attacks.
They're still taking out sites in Bahrain and in Kuwait. But in addition, they have hit Ella aloud air force base
in Qatar, which was being used to stage flights against Iran. It has hit uh the
air force bases in Jordan to uh the Princess Asan base and the Mwafik Alsalti base uh destroying command and
control centers, drone storage, going after aircraft storage as well. Uh so inflicting significant damage on radar
systems. They've targeted as well the facility in Oman that has been used by US aircraft carriers for resupply,
refitting, uh refueling. Uh so that is uh you know they've attacked there. Uh
reports mixed. It's not quite clear if they've gone after the UAE or not. Uh the one country that has not yet been
attacked is uh Saudi Arabia. But that brings us to the latest development. uh
overnight the Saudis bombed locations in uh Yemen. It is now basically Yemen has
declared war on Saudi Arabia for all practical purposes. Uh so in the future what we can anticipate is the launch of
ballistic missiles from Yemen to Yanbu uh the port the western port that Saudi Arabia has been using to get oil out
some oil uh several million barrels a day out of the Persian Gulf. uh that that site I think will be rendered
inoperative probably by the week's end as well as the Houthis may make good on their threat a threat that was made
actually initially by Iran that saying if if the US renewed these attacks they would close Babil Mandab straight with
using the Houthis as a pro as a proxy but then they also made one other let's call it promise or threat
depending how you look at They said, uh, what we're going to do is we're going to withdraw from the nonprololiferation treaty.
That means that Iran would be on the path to uh deploying or developing a nuclear device. I know there are many
out there that believe uh Iran already has one in its possession but it's been shelved not to be used under the fatwall
issued by uh the late Ayatah Ali Kami.
The current uh ayatah uh Mustava Kami, son of Ali, uh is uh believed by many to
be in a mindset to uh remove that fatwa to authorize uh the pro the development
of a nuclear weapon. Not so much to use offensively, but in the same way that
North Korea has. Once you have a nuke, you become immune to these kinds of military attacks by the west. They don't
want to provoke a nuclear war. Uh we can see that there was clearly sentiment inside Iran in this regard. The the
funeral possessions in Thran and Msad Mashad in Iran were filled with
chance of revenge. uh the red flag within Shiism uh stands for revenge. Uh so this is not
one they have not forgiven and forgotten. They remember and they seek revenge against the United States. Uh so
what what we're going to look at now is uh the US announced today the reinstitution of the blockade
of the straight of Hormuz. Now, I I I think that has more is there's more of a verbal threat than an actual threat
because the United States still has limited naval power that it could bring to such a task. Nonetheless, I think in the coming days, we will see them
interdict some Iranian ships and in in anticipation of that, I think Iran is going to be moving more aggressively to respond to that blockade.
In in the past, Iran was being counseledled by Pakistan, by China to, you know, hold back uh to be patient
that there were diplomatic moves of foot uh to try to get the United States to be
uh to acknowledge uh Iran's legitimate uh demand. Um I think that day now has
come and gone. I think Iran has realized that it's made one consiliatory move after another to be rebuffed now on
every on every front and that the United States without even though Iran has complied with theou
as has Hezbollah Hezbollah up to this point has not gone back on the offensive. Uh I think over the coming
week may we may very well see uh Hezbollah the the ban on it's it's withholding of
attacks in accordance with uh Iran's promises to uphold theou. I think they'll recognize theou is dead. They'll
be back on the attack. Uh Israel will be back on its back foot and these attacks on Iran are not going to stop. I you
know it is currently closing in on uh 11
p.m. uh in uh in Iran and I anticipate that we'll start seeing a renewal of of
attacks on Iranian targets uh this afternoon. Hope I'm wrong. That's it. Z.
[laughter]
That's a lot.
It is it is it is it is a lot and it is information that uh comes directly from
our sources uh firsthand not varnished by corporate interest or any other interests. So those of you who are
watching us, if you like what we're doing, please subscribe. Please hit the like button and also for your information, we have started a paid
subscription at the lowest possible rate allowed by uh by by Substack, which is $5 a month. You will get security
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subscribe for $50 a year, that actually makes it cheaper.
It will make it cheaper and you will get this direct reporting from direct
sources. uh not compromised by corporate interest or political interest delivered to you by people who have the quality of
experience that Pepe Escobar and Larry Johnson our colleagues founding members of this channel bring to you. I have
some additional information uh that I would like to relate to our audiences and also for your comment and this came
22 minutesjust about an hour before we went on the air and this is that the mood inside Iran is defiant.
They are prepared for war. They are prepared for revenge. They are prepared for the United States to actually send ground troops. They welcome ground
troops inside of Iran so that the United States will learn the true cost of the war which would be devastating and
obviously not welcomed by anybody who doesn't want to see innocent people being killed. But Iran is in that
mindset. At the same time I am informed that uh Iran is very sane is very
rational. Even the office of uh of the supreme leader has given uh a green
signal to the leadership to engage in serious talks and that would include Galibah, Pzeskin and Arashi and they are
speaking with uh with their counterparts in Pakistan uh which that would be Field Marshall Munir, pres uh Prime Minister
Sharif and foreign minister Mr. Isakdar and also speaking very interestingly and
very aggressively recently with the the with President Erdogan. Uh in fact uh
Erdogan channel is so important that Field Marshall Moner has has in fact left Islamabad to travel to to Turkey to
meet with Erdogan and they are also speaking with the Amir of Qatar. There is a funeral underway for the former
Amir the the father of the president Amir and isdar foreign minister is there
prime minister Shabbal Sharif is there so they are having talks with the amir of Qatar they're also having talks with
Saudi Arabia even though Saudi Arabia has this problem that you just identified so Iran is a rational actor
from everything that we see everything that we see shows that Iran is a rational actor. Iran is prepared for war
and is very well equipped for war. I think I I need to emphasize that very well equipped for war and and is
actually not going to shy away from uh from a fight if Trump is so stupid to do that. But Trump in everybody's
estimation has a very short runway. he cannot plunge the entire world economy into a disaster. Not a recession, a
disaster. So, what do you make of all that, Larry?
Yeah. Well, um, the the decisions of the United States right now,
you have to look at it. I I think it's important for people to understand there is a military bureaucracy that undergurs all of this activity.
And so if one of the reasons I felt comfortable on February 26, February
27th saying that the United States was going to go to war with Iran is because I knew that what were called crisis
action teams cats had been set up and operating for at least five days in the
previous five days at that time. Now, uh, having, you know, I spent 23 years scripting exercises for the special
operation forces. So, I know I know sort of, if you will, all the all the paperwork that has to take place behind the scenes before an operation is
launched, even in a crisis situation, that doesn't doesn't disappear.
So, uh, what we've seen since June 17th was the dismantling
of this, uh, if you will, this bureaucratic system for monitoring 24-hour combat operations. In other
words, to carry out major combat operations, you need to have these crisis action teams up and running at
the Pentagon, at the uh Central Command headquarters, at Joint Special Operations Command headquarters, at
subservient uh other supporting commands.
And uh those to my knowledge, what I was told were were turned off about three
weeks ago. now and when when I say turned off they were they actually it's been four weeks so they went back to 5
day a week 8 to 5 now it's this in the past few days there's some real confusion whether
those are being reignited or u because there've been contradictory orders issued some people are supposed
to return home and then they're being told no stay no return home others are being told to stay, no return home, no
stay. So, lots of confusion and that confusion on the part of the United States doesn't make it a in a better
position to conduct any kind of coherent military operations. Iran by contrast
has been uh with the support of Russia and China is getting intelligence support. They know what targets to hit.
They know where the vulnerabilities are.
They know what uh uh were were to try to, you know, weaken the United States potential for future military operations.
And when I come back to, you know, the sour crude, sweet crude that we talked about, um, the there's there's not an
unlimited supply of aviation fuel. So if the United States starts increasing, stepping up its military operations in
the Persian Gulf, that's going to drain off aviation fuel that normally would be available to the civilian sector. Now it's dedicated exclusively to the
military sector, civilian side's going to suffer. And so all of a sudden, when you have a cut back on civilian air travel, uh you've got a problem. Uh
similarly, if they say, "Oh, we've got to now produce more aviation fuel because of the shortage." Well, that means you're taking fuel that would
normally go to diesel, shifting it to the aviation side. So, in other this gets very complex on an economic side
and that's why I think, you know, I know that Pakistan believes Trump's ultimately going to come back begging to get back to the table, begging to get
the talks restarted. Um, that that could be as soon as uh towards the end of this week. uh it'll um he'll do it at he'll
do it if he does it he'll do it at a time that is going to help you know boost the stock market as I I think I mentioned the stock market is taking a
bit bit of a beating today as well as the oil market um
you know chip makers drop there's uh you know the a lot of the uh secondary effects from the blockade of the
straight of Hormuz are being felt throughout the economy And uh the oil market is going back up and will
continue I think to climb until such time as there's a belief that the oil is now going to flow back out of the straight of Formoose. But that's not
going to come from the Iran seeking a deal. That's going to come from the United States essentially crying uncle and saying okay uh let us get out of this trap.
Well, my reporting uh which is very uh I mean about an hour before we started recording this is that uh Phil Marshall
Munir traveling to Turkey is on the express request of interested parties who are
decision makers including President Erdogan that uh
between themselves and uh and Qataris who are being uh you know cons consulted
with the uh by by the visit of Shabbash Sharif prime minister and in consultation with Iranian leadership as
well as Saudi Arabia even though there is this conflict going on in with uh with Yemen that they are going to
present to Trump uh something that would be like an ultimatum that here is a deal
and the deal starts with what was previously agreed It is not to be renegotiated at all. Not at all. They
are that defined. Iranians are that defined. And if you do not wish to
plunge the the global economy into a depression, forget about a recession, into a depression, then you are welcome to come attack us. We are ready for you.
Yeah. Well, that is their position. Yeah. Look, it was Trump four hours ago.
I just looked it up to be sure. He declared, "The Straight of Hormuz is open and will remain open with or without Iran." I mean, the man's got his
head up his ass. It's not true. He says, "We're reinstating the Iranian blockade uh because we're only going to stop Iran
ships or or customers from entering or leaving. All other countries will have fair open use of the straight." And but the United States is now going to charge
they claim a toll 20% to reimburse us for our costs. This I you know all this is going to do is make sure that the
straight of Hermuz it will operate under Iran's control. Ships are linked to Iran will come out and if Iran if the US tries to interfere with them they're
going to simply shut down global trading which is going to sabotage and tank the US economy.
How can Trump do this? How can he be that stupid?
He is he is that stupid. He's not mentally he's not well. He, you know, Robert Barnes has pointed out that u
Trump is exhibiting the signs of preffrontal lobe dementia. I I believe that's entirely true. Uh Trump Trump
believes his own uh pre reads his own press clippings and believes them. So they say straight of hormuz is open.
Just look at go to vesselfinder.com. Go to marinetra.com.
Nothing's going through nothing right now. The la the last ship that came out was called uh let's see the last ship
out, let me look here, was called Seaf Faith. Uh it's a chemical oil products tanker and it's headed to Singapore.
That's the last one I see on vesselfinder.com.
Well, before he signed the lastouou, he declared to people who were against that that well we, you know, our our strategic reserve was down to nothing.
The economy was on the precipice of uh what happened under Herbert Hoover, which is a depression, and I'm I'm not
going to allow that. So, I mean, where has all that gone?
Well, they they put it on the back burner, but uh you know that's going to come that's from now going forward through through the rest of July into
August uh you know this uh the economic slowdown is going to accelerate
uh and the financial pressure on the US is going to increase.
Now in in in the midst of all this we should offer some hope to our audiences
and that is that Pakistani leadership, Qatari leadership, Turkish leadership uh
believes that uh Iran would be prepared to accept the United States back to the
negotiating table uh as soon as perhaps uh you know this weekend, coming weekend. Yeah, I think Z, I think that's
ridiculous. Iran Iran's not going to accept the United States back. The United States is going to have to come
back hatinand, lift the blockade, lift the sanctions, unfreeze the assets upfront. Iran's not going to take any
more promises that this will be negotiated upfront. Unfreeze the assets now, not in the future. They're not
going to accept uh any more promises from the United States. The Agreed. Agreed. Larry, I I I I should
have should have phrased that better. uh with all these preconditions being met
and Trump would recognize the stupidity the absolute utter stupidity of what he has done uh because of the pressures
that will mount on him uh you know within the next several days uh optimistically by the weekend uh and
maybe not optimistically but as soon as next week.
Yeah. With all those preconditions being met, this is what I have learned directly from people in the negotiating
room that they are so confident that the pressure will be such in of such intensity because his stupidity and lies
would become so evident that this is what is going to be the the the the situation. So my my question to you was what do you think about that?
Yeah. Uh I I think they're overly optimistic. Uh Trump Trump is not going to act until the his hair is on fire and
it's going to be too late to put it out with a fire extinguisher.
Uh this is u I think the sort of the last exit was this morning. Now
we'll see if with all of Trump's tough talk, say that fast three times, if if the United States foregoes further uh attacks on Iranian targets tonight,
that then tells me that the United States, despite its threats, closing the straight, reimposing the block Oh, they didn't close the straight. The
straight's open. I forgot Trump said it's open. But but they're reimposing the blockade. Uh that if if there are no further military actions against Iran
tonight, that'll tell me that the United States has blinked again and is backing off. But that that's not a guarantee
that it'll last for a day or two. Uh Iran is not going to deviate from its course. Uh it will remain uh amendable
to reopening talks, but it's going to be under different conditions this next round. They're not going to go in with no con. There are conditions that the United States is going to have to meet
upfront, not with some not with some promise down the line upfront. And it's going to start with the unfreezing of assets.
There's going to have to be a financial deposit a financial deposit into Iranian accounts or Iran will say screw it.
We're not showing up.
Uh I I second that, Larry. I second that. uh from information that I believe is credible that uh this is going to be
the the the conditions that would be communicated from what I understand by Erdogan because this war was started you
know on Turkish soil uh with Erdogan on his side uh people believe that Erdogan would have a little bit uh higher uh
authority when it's when he speaks with Trump saying everybody has spoken. This is what they want. And if you do not
wish to be, you know, your fire to be a fire to be lit, you know, under you, this is what you're going to have to do.
Yeah. Well, let me just There's I've learned a word in Farsy and I think uh it may be connected to Erdu Enagam.
38 minutesYes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Well, I I think with the So, Antam is uh the Farsy word for revenge. Yes.
That that that was the phrase being chanted in the streets of of
Mashad and Yes. Yes.
And then and so there's no consiliation on that. Uh they want the murder of Ali
uh Kamei, the murder of the 168 children, uh the can the years the murder of General Solommani. The United
States is the assassin, not Iran. And Iran therefore is going to extract
revenge and that that is going to be at the center of these negotiations.
And finally, Iran is in control of the escalation ladder. United States is not. Yes.
So, uh, Larry, why don't you wrap it up so that we pick it up tomorrow with with Pepe and we come back on Wednesday as we
always do with all three of us. And please remind people about our special trade subscription.
Yeah. So, as as we this is this has been recorded uh Tuesday afternoon roughly 2:45
uh p.m. East Coast time. Uh it's 11:45 a.m. on Monday afternoon.
Monday afternoon on the West Coast. Um, so within uh within the next uh 14
hours, we'll know whether the United States is going to continue its campaign of violence against Iran or if it has
suffered enough damage that is going to back off and seek to lick its wounds despite all of its tough talk. Uh the
reality is Iran has signi inflicted significant damage on US military
40 minutesfacilities in Jordan and Qatar in Oman and Bahrain and Kuwait and uh where the
United States has the stomach to continue to you know no matter what damage it thinks it's inflicting on Iran the United States is suffering greater
damage. So you can try uh check us out at transition protocol on YouTube. There you will find the link to the Substack
where you can also read and watch uh what we're talking about. Uh we we've added other members uh to this channel
that'll be that are offering their commentary already. VJ Prasad, Alex Craner. Uh so
and yes, so this is uh important voices that you normally won't hear out of the mainstream media in the west. Uh it's
important that you support us, that we can establish this as an alternative channel where you can get the information that you're not going to hear uh from uh the mainstream uh press.
So, we appreciate you taking the time to watch, to listen. Please hit that like and subscribe button. Pass it on to
friends and relatives. Uh, you've had Dr. Zufakar Ali and myself, Larry Johnson. Tomorrow you have Pepe Escobar.
So, stay tuned. Thank you for watching. Have a good day. Thank you very much.

Trump performs huge U-turn on 20% Hormuz tax as Iran retaliation intensifies | Janta Ka Reporter
by Rifat Jawaid
Jul 14, 2026

US President Donald Trump has been forced to renege on his plans to collect a 20% cargo fee from commercial ships in exchange for providing them safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. This sudden policy reversal came amidst a wave of Iranian retaliation that is gaining momentum, with the IRGC striking several American military bases across the Gulf region. Facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan have been the worst hit.



Transcript

The US and Iran have intensified their strikes and retaliatory strikes respectively. Iranian missiles have hit
US military bases causing considerable damages. The deranged occupant of the White House has been forced to reneg on
his earlier claim to charge 20% fuel from each ship in the state of Hormos.
pro- genocide UK foreign secretary is forced to acknowledge that she and others in the Labor Party were wrong to
oppose the ceasefire in Gaza. This will be the broad focus of my video tonight.
Also in this video, I expose another instance of BBC propaganda on Iran with the help of powerful reporting by Irish
comedian and writer Ty Hickeyi. So please stay tuned. Iran has shown no sign of slowing down in its retaliatory
strikes against US military bases in the Gulf region. This was after the US military continued to attack Iranian
cities for the fourth day in a row. The US military targeted the Kish Island power plant, damaging a vital power
engineering facility on the island. The US military has singled out the Iranian coastal hub and civilian infrastructure
as it bombed a gas station in the Saravan county. There have also been reports of explosions from Busher,
Chabahar, Jaz, Konarak, Abu Musa and Bandarabas.
The US has also announced the resumption of its blockade of the state of Hormos for Iranian vessels. In response, Iran
continued with its relentless retaliatory strikes against American military bases in Bahran, Kuwait, the
UAE, and Jordan, among others. As I mentioned in my last video earlier today, Iran fired ballistic missiles at
two UAE tankers as they tried to pass through the state of Hormuz via the Omani route. One Indian sailor was
skilled in the attack while eight others were believed to have been injured. You can watch that video here.
The worst hit country has been Bahran, which hosts the US Navy's fifth fleet headquarters. Among Iran's latest target
in Bahran was a huge US weapons warehouse that the IRGC claimed to have completely destroyed. So it's clear
despite its fourth consecutive day of relentless bombing, Iran has responded in equal measure. And this is
frustrating the deranged occupant of the White House. No wonder he performed another U-turn today by saying that he
had no plans to collect 20% cargo tax after imagining to control the estate of Hormuz. So I put it out yesterday. I
thought it was good. I was called by different people, different countries, kings and amirs and all of the people
that we all know and we all love and they've been frankly they've been very strong partners and they said we'd love to do it a different way. We'd love to
invest in the United States with billions and billions of dollars and continue our record setting because we
would there's never been a time like this for the United States with the factories, with the plants, with everything else. and we would like to invest tremendously in the United States
as opposed to charging a fee. And I like that actually because I don't think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the uh for the straight or for any
other uh straight relationship in terms of other sections of the world. I don't think anybody should be really in that
position. But we were doing it as a reimbursement. the Gulf States are going to invest a tremendous amount of money
into the United States. And that was very satisfactory to me. I think it's actually much better.
Even this delusional fool knew that he would never be able to control the state of Hormuz. Not when the US military has
parked its warships hundreds of miles away from the Iranian shores in a cowardly manner. If the US Navy was so
brave and powerful, why doesn't it bring a fleet to the state of Hormos and maybe even occupy the Kerg Island?
Listen to this British military expert on Sky News. He says, "Not only is the US military incapable of attacking Iran
from the state of Hormuz, but the Iranians have hit the fifth fleet headquarters so badly that it's been
rendered useless." indicates that the Americans can't do very much to keep the straits open. Despite what President Trump said, they cannot keep the straits
open unless they're prepared to sail in there with their two carrier battle groups and fight a battle of the Hormos Strait. And if they fight that battle,
they will undoubtedly win it. But in winning that battle, they'll lose something as well. They'll lose a ship or they'll have ships damaged. They might have some of their personnel killed. They cannot do it without loss.
But they would win the battle if they took it on, but they won't take it on.
And they've already lost somewhere in the region of 18 members of the military. I think figuring they have. Yes. In this war and quite a number of aircraft through accidents and
they've had um you know the facilities have been more damaged than they say. I mean in um Bahrain which is the Aljafir
base in Bahrain. We tiny little Bahrain there. Just there it is on on the map.
Um that's the headquarters of the US fifth fleet. It's not clear that that base will be usable again. It's been so badly damaged. The other option for the
US military is to launch a land incursion. Something Israeli slave Trump has long threatened to do. But this
would be like falling into the Iranian trap as rightly pointed out by this expert on Al Jazzer TV.
Trap. I think the United States, if they were to decide to try and conduct an amphibious assault on uh the Iranian
coast or try to deploy a marine expeditionary unit on some of the strategic outposts in the strait itself, whether that's uh CARG, whether that's
another uh strategic outpost, I think they would be falling for an escalation trap because the Iranians still retain
uh a large number of their ballistic missile inventory. US intelligence estimates say 70 to 80% of their ballistic missile inventory. And of
course, the Iranians have thousands, maybe tens of thousands of drones and within short range if the US were to commit personnel. Those drones could do
some serious damage and that would impose huge political costs on the United States. Not to mention that if the United States did decide to conduct
an amphibious assault, a ground operation to take and hold some Iranian territory, then the the Iranians would lash out again at all the GCC countries
and probably start to target critical national infrastructure like LG facilities and deselination plants. So it would be absolutely devastating. The
solution to this uh problem lies in a diplomatic resolution. The root cause of the resumption of military conflict in
the region has been Trump's refusal to honor the terms of the MOU. The MOU clearly called for a ceasefire in
Lebanon, but Israeli savages continued to bomb southern Lebanon as they carried out ethnic cleansing with impunity.
Trump also went back on the MOU by not letting Iran control the state of Formos. This is what had prompted Iran
to attack ships since they were following an alternative path suggested by the US military. Iran expert Nagar
Mortazavi says that the Islamic Republic is essentially now going to force Trump to return to honor the terms of the MOU through this conflict.
Well, it seems like we're back to the hot conflict again with escalation on both sides step by step. And I think how
we're ending up here is essentially theou not really holding from the Iranian viewpoint. The US has violated
many parts of theou major parts key parts. Ending the war on all fronts including Lebanon wasn't implemented.
um coordinating traffic through Hormos with Iran was violated um etc etc and so the conflict is starting it's going to
be painful for the Iranian side of course the blockade is going to have economic impacts very serious as the war has had it's also going to be painful
for the US I mean any kind of conflict in the straight of by any side is just going to impact the global market which
has really put a lot of pressure on President Trump essentially that's what brought him to theou and pushed him towards that final peace deal. But now I
guess he's forgotten about that and it's unraveled and we're back to escalation and potentially back to the neighbors
also um have paying a heavy cost for all of this and then the global markets. Of course, as for Lebanon, you have to
watch this reporting by brave war correspondent Courtney Benu from inside southern Lebanon to understand the barbarism of Israeli terrorists.
I'm reporting to you from the town of Nabatia Alfala, which has also been heavily bombarded by the Israeli army.
Uh there's a lot of damage here. Um they actually just bombed here earlier today as well. Uh, one of the hills that the
Israelis are trying to capture is called Ali Taher. It it's here behind me and it overlooks the city of Nabatia. The
elevation of this hill would allow Israel to utilize visual and electronic surveillance systems on the entire area.
And I want to continue on the theme of illegal Israeli bases, which I made a video about yesterday. Uh, I talked
about the ever growing amount of illegal Israeli bases in Lebanon. The number has grown to 23, up from five.
Uh, they just bombed over here. So, and there's a quadcopter here. Uh, I
inadvertently photographed another one of the bases yesterday on Telawida Hill.
And if you look closely at this, you'll see that the base is also made from permanent building materials. I also obtained satellite imagery of a base on
top of Marun Alas, a town on a hill next to Bint Jabel that was raised to the ground during the 2024 war and
subsequent ceasefire period. They absolutely wiped the town off the map.
Alias Dean and I spent a lot of time in Maroon uh to document the building of these the illegal Jal Alair base which
overlooks it and Bida and also the construction of a border wall that illegally stretched into Lebanese territory.
The towns that were destroyed along the border were not destroyed by accident or in some frenzy of war. It was all calculated to occupy Lebanon. That's
what's happening now. Yesterday, Ali and I also drove on Hardella Road just below Bowford Castle. Israeli flags and
surveillance equipment now sit on top of the UNESCO protected castle which dates back to the 12th century. The Israeli
army has been detonating detonating explosives in the area and in the immediate vicinity of the
castle with speculation that they intend to target the castle itself, which would make sense to me uh given their patterns
in building illegal bases in specific locations.
Americans, your tax dollars are paying for this. And remember, the violence that you export will come back to you as evidenced by the growing surveillance
state in the United States and the extrajudicial killings by immigration enforcement. The latest one being yesterday in Maine where a 26-year-old
man was shot dead in front of his three-year-old daughter. Don't think that what's happening here can't happen to you in some form. It will, and it is.
Call your local politicians. Demand to know where your tax money is going.
In the UK, Iet Cooper, a prominent member of Labor Friends of Israel, today admitted that her party was wrong with
its disgraceful stand on the Gaza genocide. She was responding to a question on soon to be Prime Minister
Andy Bernham's apology for the Kamal le party to justify the mass murder of Palestinians by Israeli terrorists. Now
that she knows she may not even be in her post, she's suddenly sounding human.
Thank you, Foreign Secretary. So you mentioned um Andy Bernham there. So I'll I'll start with um his position statement and then come on to settlements. Um so he made um a
statement in relation to Gaza um saying that we didn't get it right. Um we must do better. Um and it took far too long
to call for a ceasefire um and that now we must we must do much more to strengthen our approach. as the foreign secretary. Do you agree with his
reflections that it did take far too long and that the position was wrong to start off with?
Yes. And I think look what he a lot of what he was talking about I think was referring to issues for us as a party in opposition because I think it's about
the kind of the early response um that we had um on this where we should have been faster to call for a ceasefire and
also um been clearer from the start about the importance of international humanitarian law. Um, and I think that is a reflection really for us as a party. But yes, I do agree with that.
And when the ruling party has been so corrupt, how can you expect integrity from the government-owned media outlet
such as the BBC? We saw another example of this rogue organization's editorial dishonesty when it broadcast a highly
objectionable program on Iran. This program on BBC Radio 4 was called Heart and Soul. So you would have expected
this severely compromised organization to seek some salvation by exploring the impact of American and Israeli terrorist
savagery in Minab on the parents of those 168 little angels who are massacred for just being Iranian
children. But no, the BBC Radio 4 dedicated to spreading unfiltered hatred against Islam and his
followers. They chose four anonymous Iranians and used actors voices to portray the Iranian government as a vile
and depraved entity. The presenter Emily Vida said in the beginning in her intro of this propaganda piece that people who
criticize the Iranian government faced serious consequences.
She also described the status of Iranian women as being oppressed under the Islamic government. This was a clip from
that program. I'm Emily Wither. In this edition of Heart and Soul, which explores [music] personal approaches to spirituality from around the world,
we've been speaking to four Iranians inside Iran about how they've struggled with their relationship with Islam under
an increasingly repressive regime and how their personal approaches to faith kept them going during the war and state imposed dogma.
We've been speaking to a mother and son in the capital Thran. She's in her 50s, a housewife, and wears a headscarf. Her
son is in his 30s. We're not able to share their names, and their words have been voiced by actors. Because they talk freely, they fear reprisals from the
Iranian authorities. Criticizing the government can lead to arrest, and talking to foreign media can be considered as helping the enemy.
But has this woman ever cared to do a similar series focusing on the repressive regime of the UAE, Saudi
Arabia and other Gulf states? What would happen to people who criticize the UAE regime or let's say Saudi monarchs?
Can she afford to criticize the Saudi or the UAE or Baharani or Kuwaiti regime while being in the countries despite
enjoying protection due to her British passport and BBC credentials? So why single out Iran? And what happened to the BBC's so-called impartiality claim?
Why choose all four anonymous guest who are critics of the Iranian government and Islam? Is this rogue organization
saying that its presenter simply couldn't find a single person in Thran who would talk positively about Islam
and the Iranian government? Well, this Irish writer and activist Hickeyi did interview those so-called oppressed women during his recent visit to Thran.
Watch his interviews with Iran's so-called oppressed women. Oh, well, they all are speaking fluent English and
are even sounding more educated and reasonable than this BBC woman.
So, for a very long time, I was like deeply brainwashed by Western propaganda. But after the beginning of
the imposed war, I felt like my like my insights completely changed. I was feeling like, you know what? Like, I
don't care about having a Ferrari anymore. I don't care about having a lipstick anymore. I want to be able to
fight Zionism. So, I'm Gen Z, by the way. So, you identify as Gen Z like Yeah. Yeah.
proudly, actually.
Because like I'm I guess I'm younger. It was super easy for like my generation to get like completely brainwashed by the
by the propaganda because like we're spending a lot of time on social media on Tik Tok, YouTube, Netflix, whatever.
Like you were spending so much time on those platforms. [music] You will ended up be like h like I want a more luxury life. I want to have a
Ferrari. I want to be able to like have a channel blush. I want a Dior lipstick,
you know, but because of the sanctions like those things are not really like an
option for us for a very very very long time. I was told that you have literally no future in Iran. Yes.
Like if you want to have a high education, if you want to get your master's in English literature, if you want to get your PhD in English
literature, you need to go. you're not going to have any future in Iran.
And like it seems like there's two different things there in a way cuz one is like a capitalist sort of uh almost debauched type of thing of oh we want
lots of stuff like so that's that's commercialism and individualism marketing exactly but higher education is a different thing because I mean I'm
learning the extent to which Iranians particularly Iranian women are some of the most well educated people in the world. So he was like, "Oh, where are you going to?" And I said, "Iran." And
he was absolutely shocked. Like, "Why would you want to go there? The women are repressed." And I'm like, "You're telling me that I'm not that bad."
Of course, if you are listening to mainstream media, you are going to believe that we are oppressed. I think it makes you appreciate what you have in
Iran. So I always on in every trip that we used to do to Iran, like I used to tell my cousins, friends, like guys, it's really not that bad here.
Such a low ceiling, isn't it? It's [laughter] not that bad. I mean it's bad.
Yeah, but actually that's quite Irish as well though. Like it's actually not that bad.
Like the propaganda is so strong that even though I saw those things, I would still be like maybe it is better to go
to university elsewhere. But when I started seeing like you know um so much of improvement on certain areas in Iran
like us being uh probably the leading sort of um scientist when it comes to IVF or other things you know in science
and technology and when you start to realize that you have this much you then dismantle everything in your mind but
that really comes with experience that comes with age because it's hard when you are a youngster to kind of not go
with what the crowd wants. So, I did like for a very long time kind of regurgitate what everybody else was saying. But as I'm growing older, I'm really starting to see the differences.
This is why I want this rogue organization defunded and let terrorist Netanyahu use his money to run this as
his propaganda outlet. No one would have any qualms about 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.

BREAKING: PEPE EXPOSES Nuclear Green Light for Iran While Erdogan and Munir WARN Trump to Stop
Transition Protocol
Jul 14, 2026

TRUMP IS LISTENING. In this episode of Transition Protocol, Pepe Escobar and Zulfiqar Ali report — based on sources at the negotiating table — that President Erdogan and Pakistan's Field Marshal Asim Munir have held two direct phone calls with President Trump in a last-ditch effort to save the collapsed 14-point Iran–US Memorandum of Understanding and stop a third US–Iran war. Meanwhile, sources say no tanker crosses the Strait of Hormuz without Tehran's authorization, and America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve approaches its critical red line by mid-August — with pump prices on the line.

We break down Mojtaba Khamenei's first days as Iran's new leader, the Supreme National Security Council's re-evaluation of the deal — including whether Iran leaves the NPT — the mystery attack on an Iranian jet over Yemen, Ansarallah's two-for-one retaliation, and the Tehran–Ankara–Islamabad–Doha coalition racing against a 10-to-15-day window. Note: several reports in this episode are based on sources close to the talks and are not yet independently verified; we flag each one on screen.

Pepe Escobar is a veteran geopolitical correspondent and columnist covering Eurasia for over three decades; Zulfiqar Ali brings direct access to figures involved in the mediation. Transition Protocol is a serious, source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel — evidence-based reporting and high-signal breakdowns of global power shifts and their financial consequences. Subscribe and turn on notifications; full security briefs at our Substack.