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US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites only set back program by months, Pentagon report says. Findings by Defense Intelligence Agency suggest Trump’s declaration that sites were ‘obliterated’ may be overstated
by Hugo Lowell in Washington
The Guardian
Tue 24 Jun 2025 16.49 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/ ... tes-report

An initial classified US assessment of Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend says they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report.

The report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency – the intelligence arm of the Pentagon – concluded key components of the nuclear program, including centrifuges, were capable of being restarted within months.

The report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be put to use for a possible nuclear weapon was moved before the strikes and may have been moved to other secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran.

The findings by the DIA, which were based on a preliminary battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, suggests Trump’s declaration about the sites being “obliterated” may have been overstated.

Trump said in his televised address on Saturday night immediately after the operation that the US had completely destroyed Iran’s enrichment sites at Natanz and Fordow, the facility buried deep underground, and at Isfahan, where enrichment was being stored.

“The strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” Trump said in his address from the White House.

While the DIA report was only an initial assessment, one of the people said if the intelligence on the ground was already finding within days that Fordow in particular was not destroyed, later assessments could suggest even less damage might have been inflicted.

Long regarded as the most well-protected of Iran’s nuclear sites, the uranium-enrichment facilities at Fordow are buried beneath the Zagros mountains. Reports have suggested that the site was constructed beneath 45-90 metres (145-300ft) of bedrock, largely limestone and dolomite.

The White House disputed the intelligence assessment, which was first reported by CNN. “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

The US vice-president, JD Vance, admitted on Sunday that Washington did not know where Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranian was, saying: “we are going to work in the coming weeks to ensure that we do something with that fuel”.

Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Monday that the IAEA could no longer account for Iran’s stockpile of 400kg of uranium enriched to 60% purity.

The Guardian revealed last Wednesday that top political appointees at the Pentagon had been briefed at the start of Trump’s second term that the 30,000lb “bunker buster” GBU-57 bombs meant to be used on Fordow would not completely destroy the facility.

In that briefing, in January, officials were told by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at the Pentagon that developed the GBU-57 that the bombs would not penetrate deep enough underground and only a tactical nuclear weapon would wipe out Fordow.

The US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities involved B2 bombers dropping 12 GBU-57s on Fordow and two GBU-57s on Natanz. A US navy submarine then launched roughly 30 Tomahawk missiles on Isfahan, US defense officials said at a news conference Sunday.

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth repeated Trump’s claim at the news conference that the sites had been “obliterated”, but the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, who helped oversee the operation, was more measured in his remarks.

Caine said that all three of the nuclear sites had “sustained severe damage and destruction” but cautioned that the final battle-damage assessment for the military operation was still to come.

**********************

Exclusive: Early US intel assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, sources say
by Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Cohen,
CNN
Updated 7:13 PM EDT, Tue June 24, 2025
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/politics ... lear-sites

The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by seven people briefed on it.

The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said.

The analysis of the damage to the sites and the impact of the strikes on Iran’s nuclear ambitions is ongoing, and could change as more intelligence becomes available. But the early findings are at odds with President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also said on Sunday that Iran’s nuclear ambitions “have been obliterated.”

Two of the people familiar with the assessment said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed. One of the people said the centrifuges are largely “intact.” Another source said that the intelligence assessed enriched uranium was moved out of the sites prior to the US strikes.

“So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” this person added.

The White House acknowledged the existence of the assessment but said they disagreed with it.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement: “This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community. The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”

The US military has said the operation went as planned and that it was an “overwhelming success.”

It is still early for the US to have a comprehensive picture of the impact of the strikes, and none of the sources described how the DIA assessment compares to the view of other agencies in the intelligence community. The US is continuing to pick up intelligence, including from within Iran as they assess the damage.

Israel had been carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities for days leading up to the US military operation but claimed to need the US’ 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs to finish the job. While US B-2 bombers dropped over a dozen of the bombs on two of the nuclear facilities, the Fordow Fuel Enrichment plant and the Natanz Enrichment Complex, the bombs did not fully eliminate the sites’ centrifuges and highly enriched uranium, according to the people familiar with the assessment.

Instead, the impact to all three sites — Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan — was largely restricted to aboveground structures, which were severely damaged, the sources said. That includes the sites’ power infrastructure and some of the aboveground facilities used to turn uranium into metal for bomb-making.[???].

The Israeli assessment of the impact of the US strikes also found less damage on Fordow than expected. However, Israeli officials believe the combination of US and Israeli military action on multiple nuclear sites set back the Iranian nuclear program by two years, assuming they are able to rebuild it unimpeded which Israel would not allow. But Israel had also stated publicly before the US military operation that Iran’s program had been set back by two years.

Hegseth also told CNN, “Based on everything we have seen — and I’ve seen it all — our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons. Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.“

On Tuesday morning, Trump repeated his belief the damage from the strikes was significant.

“I think it’s been completely demolished,” he said, adding, “Those pilots hit their targets. Those targets were obliterated, and the pilots should be given credit.”

Asked about the possibility of Iran rebuilding its nuclear program, Trump responded, “That place is under rock. That place is demolished.”

While Trump and Hegseth have been bullish about the success of the strikes, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said Sunday that while the damage assessment was still ongoing it would be “way too early” to comment on whether Iran still retains some nuclear capabilities.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman emeritus of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, would not echo Trump’s claims that the Iranian program had been “obliterated” when pressed by CNN on Tuesday.

“I’ve been briefed on this plan in the past, and it was never meant to completely destroy the nuclear facilities, but rather cause significant damage,” McCaul told CNN, referring to the US military plans to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. “But it was always known to be a temporary setback.”

Jeffrey Lewis, a weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who has closely reviewed commercial satellite imagery of the strike sites, agreed with the assessment that the attacks do not appear to have ended Iran’s nuclear program.

“The ceasefire came without either Israel or the United States being able to destroy several key underground nuclear facilities, including near Natanz, Isfahan and Parchin,” Lewis said, referring to the ceasefire between Israel and Iran that Trump announced on Monday. Parchin is a separate nuclear complex near Tehran.

“These facilities could serve as the basis for the rapid reconstitution of Iran’s nuclear program.”

Earlier on Tuesday, classified briefings for both the House and Senate on the operation were canceled.

The all-Senate briefing has been moved to Thursday, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Two separate sources familiar told CNN the briefing for all House lawmakers has also been postponed. It was not immediately clear why it was delayed or when it would be rescheduled.

Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan of New York said on X on Tuesday that “Trump just cancelled a classified House briefing on the Iran strikes with zero explanation. The real reason? He claims he destroyed ‘all nuclear facilities and capability;’ his team knows they can’t back up his bluster and BS.”

As CNN has reported, there have long been questions about whether the US’ bunker-buster bombs, known as Massive Ordnance Penetrators, would be able to fully destroy Iran’s highly fortified nuclear sites that are buried deep underground — particularly at Fordow and Isfahan, Iran’s largest nuclear research complex.

Notably, the US struck Isfahan with Tomahawk missiles launched from a submarine instead of a bunker-buster bomb. That is because there was an understanding that the bomb would likely not successfully penetrate Isfahan’s lower levels, which are buried even deeper than Fordow, one of the sources said.

US officials believe Iran also maintains secret nuclear facilities that were not targeted in the strike and remain operational, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Jim Sciutto, Lauren Fox and Annie Grayer contributed reporting.

Court Orders Trump Administration To Return ANOTHER Wrongfully Deported Man From El Salvador
by Glenn Kirschner
Jun 24, 2025

Here we go again: a federal appeals court just ordered the Trump administration to return to the US another man they wrongfully deported to El. Salvador.

Not unlike the Abrego Garcia case, the Trump administration deported a man named Jordin Melgar-Salmaron in violation of both a court order and the man's constitutional rights.

But this case has a bit of a due process twist, as this video discusses.



Transcript

well friends here we go again a federal
appeals court just ordered the Trump
administration to return another man to
the US that they unconstitutionally
deported to El Salvador
you know no one can ever accuse the
Trump administration of learning from
their mistakes
let's talk about that because justice
matters
[Music]
hey all Glen Kersner here so friends
first it was Abrego Garcia
unconstitutionally deported to El
Salvador and federal judges trial court
judge appeals court judge and Supreme
Court justices ordered the Trump
administration to return Abrego Garcia
to the United States and the Trump
administration did but of course they
did it in the shadiest way possible by
trumping up some criminal charges
against Abrego Garcia criminal charges
that now look like they may be falling
apart
well now there is a second individual an
appeals court just ordered the Trump
administration to return someone else
that the administration unlawfully
unconstitutionally
deported to El Salvador this time it's
an individual named Jordan Melgar
Salmaran
and this one friends has a little bit of
a due process twist
and we'll talk about that in a minute
but first let's take on the new
reporting this from Politico headline
another man who was deported in
violation of court order must be
returned to the US court rules
and that article begins the Trump
administration must try to bring back to
the US another man who was deported to
El Salvador in violation of a court
order a federal appeals court ruled
Tuesday it's the fourth time since March
that federal courts have ordered the
administration to return immigrants who
were deemed illegally or improperly or
unconstitutionally
deported
officials must begin seeking the return
of Jordan Melgar Salaran who was sent to
his native country on May 7 as soon as
possible a three-judge panel of the New
York-based Second Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled justice Department
officials acknowledged last month that
Melgar Salmaran's deportation
violated an earlier directive from the
Second Circuit a department DOJ lawyer
blamed a confluence of administrative
errors
isn't that a lovely euphemism for
defying court orders and trampling
somebody's constitutional rights it a
confluence of administrative errors
yes my editorial edition
they blame the confluence of
administrative errors including missed
emails and an inaccurate roster of
passengers on the May 7 deportation
flight but the Department of Homeland
Security contradicted that assessment in
a public statement saying "There was no
error and accusing Melgar Salaron of
belonging to the violent MS-13 gang
where have we heard this before
they violate the constitutional due
process rights of somebody blatantly so
intentionally even gleefully
and then they say "Well person was a
dangerous MS-13
gang member." You know friends can I
tell you something I never did as a
career prosecutor
i never said you know this guy that I'm
prosecuting is a dangerous gang member
so
his constitutional rights
but that's the approach of the Trump
administration
back to the reporting
melgar Salaron's situation resembles the
cases of three other men whose hurried
deportations prompted strong push back
from courts all allegedly entered the US
without authorization but had
protections from being immediately
deported two of the men Kilmar Abrego
Garcia and Daniel Lzano Kamargo were
sent to El Salvador on March 15th abrego
Garcia's deportation violated a binding
2019 order from an immigration judge who
had barred the government the Trump
administration from sending him to El
Salvador because he faced a risk of
violence there lozano Kamargo's
deportation violated a binding court
settlement related to certain
undocumented immigrants who arrived in
the US as minors and another man
identified in court papers only as OCG
was ordered returned from overseas by a
federal judge in Massachusetts after
administration officials acknowledged
that they had no evidence he was offered
a credible fear assessment before he was
deported to Mexico authorities are
supposed to conduct such assessments to
ensure they are complying with legal
requirements not to deport people to
countries where they have a credible
fear of torture or persecution
the administration arranged for the
return of OCG earlier this month and
brought back ago to face criminal
immigrant smuggling charges a recent
update from the Department of Homeland
Security indicated that discussions with
El Salvador related to Lozano Kamargo's
return are continuing melgar Salmaran
who spent years living in Virginia had
been in immigration detention since 2022
until his deportation last month why
because he was convicted of possessing
an unregistered shotgun and he had
served a sentence in that case after his
prison sentence ended Melgar Salmaran
was detained by immigration authorities
while deportation proceedings against
him were ongoing the Justice Department
asked the appeals court to expedite
Melgar Salaron's case and indicated that
it wanted to deport him by May 9 at the
latest but and here's the important part
friends but the DOJ assured the court
that no deportation would take place
before May 8 on the morning of May 7 a
three judge panel of the second circuit
court of appeals ordered the government
to keep Melgar Salaron in the United
States while he pursued claims about
fear of torture in his home country but
about 30 minutes later Melgar Salaron
was on a deportation flight
now friends this case has something of a
deportation twist and this case also
raises an issue that I think sometimes
gets lost in these deportation
discussions we've been having and that
is obviously some people should be
deported
i don't think anybody is arguing that
nobody should be deported if somebody
comes here illegally they violate the
laws of the United States they are
prosecuted they are convicted they serve
a jail term a prison term what
ordinarily happens is at the completion
of their prison term they're deported
although not until after they've had
their due process rights satisfied of
notice and opportunity to be heard
regarding their deportation and once
their criminal case and their criminal
sentence is over they still get notice
that they're going to be deported and an
opportunity to be heard in court with
the assistance of counsel and perhaps
argue that they shouldn't be deported
but you know there are plenty of folks
who should be deported because that's
sort of the way the laws of our country
our criminal laws and our immigration
laws are set up
but here is the the deportation twist in
this case so after someone has come here
illegally been criminally prosecuted and
convicted served a prison term and had
their due process rights of notice and
opportunity to be heard satisfied and an
immigration judge orders them deported
there is another due process right that
they have under the law they have a
right to a reasonable fear hearing and
determination
what does that involve well if there is
evidence that if we deport somebody to a
particular country they are at imminent
risk of torture persecution or murder
then they may have a reasonable fear and
they may ask the court not to allow the
United States government to deport them
to that country deport them to another
country that's a reasonable fear hearing
that's part of their due process rights
so that's why this case has a bit of a
deportation twist because
the Trump administration says not to
worry they tell the second circuit court
of appeals we will not be deporting this
individual before May 8th on the morning
of May 7th accordingly the second
circuit court of appeals entered an
order an injunction saying you may not
deport this person should have been fine
right because DOJ assured the court they
wouldn't act until the 8th but then on
the morning of the 7th they stuck him on
a plane and deported him to the country
where he had a reasonable fear of
torture persecution or murder
so they violated the court order they
violated the due process rights of the
individual they violated the
constitution and the court ordered this
person to be returned to the United
States and the court set some intram
dates to report to the court okay what
are you doing to comply with our court
order and you know when we are executing
the criminal laws of our nation the
immigration laws of our nation you know
it's kind of okay to go the extra due
process
mile as is required under the law to
make sure that if we're going to deport
somebody somewhere we're not just a link
in the chain that's going to get that
person tortured or killed right deport
them yes but how about we not callously
deport them to somewhere where they're
obviously going to be in harm's way you
know it's okay when we're executing the
laws of our nation to show a little bit
of humanity
and empathy you know concern for our
fellow human beings even if they need to
be deported from our country we don't
need to send them somewhere where
they're going to be tortured or worse
you know it's okay to act decently and
responsibly with a little bit of
kindness and concern for our fellow man
and our fellow woman you know
because justice
matters
friends as always please stay safe
please stay tuned and I look forward to
talking with you all again tomorrow
[Music]

French Politician Blasts Netanyahu; ‘We Were Told Iraq Has WMDs, Now They Say Iran Has Nukes…’
Hindustan Times
Jun 19, 2025 #israel #iranisraelnews #iran

French On Israel | French On Iran Jean-Luc Mechelon | Israeli Prime Minister | Benjamin Netanyahu | Iran Nuclear Program | French Mocks Israel

Jean-Luc Mechelon, a French politician, offered a critical analysis of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approach to the ongoing conflict with Iran. Mechelon highlighted the devastating consequences being felt by civilians across the Middle East owing to 'repeated acts of aggression and political posturing'. Mechelon also harked back to the US invasion of Iraq under the pretext of Weapons Of Mass Destruction, drawing parallels with Iran's nuclear program - the flashpoint for the current conflict. Watch his full comments here.



Transcript

we know enough about this character Mr
Netanyahu to know that in the analysis
of the aggression he has undertaken
against Iran there can be and there
undoubtedly is although at the end of my
remarks I will relativize its importance
a purely political aspect i.e This man
confronts a situation with shocks and
from shock to shock You saw that just
yesterday poor people on their way to
get supplies were shot massacred bombed
in cold blood and with all the sadism
that this type of murder entails because
I say sadism because he lures them to
come and get food after having starved
them and when they are gathered shoots
them It's a behavior that contains a
kind of cruelty that adds to the general
cruelty of the situation In any case
we've now reached the point where a
child is killed every 40 minutes and 90%
of everything built in Gaza has been
destroyed And so the episodes we're
living through right now which have not
ceased even if troops are withdrawn from
the Gaza Strip to be taken elsewhere the
massacre continues
And we can see that universal
detestation and protest are suddenly
being replaced by a new wave of
propaganda When it comes to propaganda
we do the dirty work as the German
chancellor said and he has a long
tradition of doing the dirty work so he
can speak from experience and so what
they call the dirty work I don't know
now it's aggression to bring down the
Muller's regime but that doesn't erase
the fact itself the fact is that Mr
Netanyahu's government is the aggressor
and no one else
since 1996 Mr Mr Netanyahu has had to do
this I don't know how many times and
there's a video circulating that you'll
see since 1996 Mr Netanyahu has been
coming out of the woodwork at regular
intervals saying that in 3 months time
in 6 months time Iran will have a
nuclear bomb and so on Obviously
everyone pays attention when we talk
about this regime's nuclear bomb because
we know that the regime has threatened
to wipe Israel off the map which is a
position that none of us can accept in
the slightest Because just as we don't
agree with attacking Iran we don't agree
with attacking anyone
It's a peaceful vision of the world's
existence always preferring the use of
diplomacy to arms And all those who
believe that an attack allows you and a
military strike allows you to solve a
problem believe in what you want But in
real life it doesn't exist It never does
You can't win that way Or it comes at a
price that is humanely unbearable I'm
thinking of the victory over the Nazis
in the Second World War But then 20
million people died in Russia and
millions more everywhere
We were told that Iraq had weapons of
mass destruction We were told there were
weapons of mass destruction And we saw
the Secretary of State for Defense who
showed everyone a little test tube with
a white thing in it and said "That's it
That's it That's chemical weapons."
Naturally there never was one On the
other hand there had been an earlier
attempt to organize Iraq's nuclear
program and Israel's rulers at the time
had already decided to strike and bomb
without taking into account what was
inside and the fact that it was
absolutely forbidden At the moment there
are abuses of all kinds And in a way you
could even say that there are only
abuses We're told it's because of the
threat We have reason to believe that
this is not the case But it's not just
me who's talking in this case It's the
guy who's the director general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency who's
just said "We're not in a position to
say that Iran is making an effort to
build nuclear weapons." So at this time
there's no reason to believe those who
tell us that the weapon is ready and
will be fired at Israel This is not true
especially since as you know there are
19 security agencies in the USA If you
don't know I'll tell you I'm telling you
it's extremely dangerous
So now we're saying ah you're no longer
respecting the content of the agreement
There's no more of it Why it has to
respect agreements that have been
denounced So it's true that the
international agency says Iran is
centrifuging a lot to concentrate But in
the meantime there's no longer any
agreement and the discussion was on And
on Sunday the Americans and Iranians and
other parties involved in the affair
were due to meet again and the strikes
took place on Friday
So we can see that this conjunction of
lies and moments sheds light on the
hypothesis that Mr Netanyahu has decided
to use the context to erase the
situation in Gaza In any case to mask it
in the media and assassinating political
leaders even if you don't like them
can't be a political line for a modern
state a state of civilization in the
same way that carrying out genocide if
we let it happen is As King Abdullah of
Jordan said "If the international
community doesn't act we'll be erasing
what it means to be human For us this is
what was required of Italy Japan and
Germany Unconditional surrender." He
says it like that to give a signal to
the Russians that it's worth continuing
After all it was the Russians who did
most of the work in Europe It's not said
but it's the truth There are 20 million
who died in this affair and it all
played out in Stalingrad So
unconditional surrender means no
negotiation war and total war until
victory So maybe Trump is saying things
he hasn't mastered But I think this type
of vocabulary if in principle he has to
be surrounded by people who tell him
this is what it means and they tell the
Iranians to surrender unconditionally
which means get out or you give me
something vesselike That's why as we
stand today at this hour we're in the
tension zone The Iranians have asked the
North Americans to negotiate and the
other is receiving them We were turned
down What's the matter with you was
there nothing to talk about a week ago
and now you want to talk well yes they
want to talk and I don't know what is
going to say to them Anyway there was a
mad rush to wage war on Iraq that was
folded in 3 days The army and the people
were something else Are you with me so
there's an internal limit to this war
That's what makes it dangerous If no one
negotiates how do you make someone
surrender what's going on so this is
where the whole issue comes down to the
stability of the zone
We call on the international community
to take real and concrete action to
avoid further disasters for the
Palestinian people and the peoples of
the region Recognize the Palestinian
state now Stop the genocide in Gaza Only
imperialism and its agents and the
ruling dictatorship benefit from tension
and war Israel and the United States
after Iraq Libya and Syria are
determined to undermine Iranian
sovereignty and will not stop until all
regimes in the region submit to this
project of imperialism and hegimmony in
the Middle East whose aim is to suppress
the will of the people and their right
to self-determination
The way to stop the nuclear arms race in
the Middle East is not through an
aggressive war against Iran but through
the complete denuclearization of the
region a slogan to which the insumis
have rallied and with all countries
including Israel signing the nuclear
non-prololiferation treaty We call on
all progressive and freedom loving
forces in Israel Iran and around the
world to unite in condemning this
flagrant and brutal violation of
international law and to focus all their
efforts on preventing a destructive and
widespread military conflict and
establishing peace in the Middle East
[Music]
[Music]

Chas Freeman: What’s Really Behind the Push for War with Iran?
India & Global Left
Jun 21, 2025 Left take with IGL

Chas Freeman offers a sobering assessment: Is the U.S. edging closer to a full-scale war with Iran?
In this urgent interview, former U.S. Ambassador Chas Freeman offers a sobering assessment of rising tensions in the Middle East.



Transcript

hello and welcome to another episode of India and Global Left if you are new to the show please smash the subscribe
button also consider becoming a YouTube member a Patreon or donate small amount given in the link in the description box
but the least you can do is to watch this show like share and comment without further ado let me welcome our guest
today Ambassador Chess Freeman ambassador Freeman is a former US diplomat and author of several books and
a political commentator well known for his critical comments on US foreign policy ambassador Freeman welcome back
to India and Global Left thank you glad to be with you
i want to start with President Trump's uh twoweek window period after which he
would let the world know his decision to go full steam on uh Israeli US war on uh
Iran two things comes to my mind um a
there might still be some confusion left about whether to participate or not in
this full-scale war or alternatively he needs some time to prepare for this
massive uh full-scale war what is your sense of what this window breakout
window period is i think it's um nothing uh uh like what
you suggested i think it's simply a a matter of confusion uh he doesn't know what he wants to do uh he he says nobody
knows what I will do uh but that includes him he doesn't know what he
will do why uh because from the beginning his administration on matters relating to West Asia at least has been
deeply divided between Israel firsters and America firsters he and his America
first followers are now at loggerheads you see Tucker Carlson a right-wing
political commentator who had a good deal to do with creating the America
first ethos turning on him steve Bannon uh his uh guru in the first
administration that he had has also come out very critically um and so it's
pretty obvious that Mr trump is deeply torn between
uh the wealthy Zionist bureaucrats who uh put him in office um who whose
donations brought him victory in the elections uh and his core followers and
his core followers are deserting him so I think uh we don't know where this is going to go he has to make a choice
about his own future and legacy um I think he genuinely wanted and maybe
still wants uh to resolve this problem in a peaceful manner uh but he's been
frustrated at every level by two things first the incompetence of the people he has helping him who really don't know
what they're doing and are amateur uh and second the pressures he's faced from
his donors Miriam Adlesen and others uh who um are deeply opposed to any uh
negotiation still less a deal with Iran that would not subjugate Iran to Israeli
hegemony uh the objective of the Israelis is not uh necessarily to
destroy the apparently still u embriionic uh nuclear weapons program in Iran it is
to engage in regime change uh and to break Iran up into its ethnic
constituencies so we hear that Mr netanyahu has told
the Azeris in Azarbaian the former Soviet Republic now the independent
republic of Azarbaijan that they shall get the Azeri population
the Iranian Azerbaijan which is actually far more populous than Baku Baku's
domain um as part of a partition similar efforts seem to have been made with
others i don't know what's been said to the Kurds or to the Beluch but uh you
know this is an effort to do to Iran what Israel for long sought to do to
Syria israel has not succeeded in fishing Syria um but it has essentially
destroyed its sovereignty in all but a nominal sense he wants to do the same to
Iran he can't do that without the help of the United States and so it has
contrived a war on on the basis of a completely fictitious justification
on the premise that if it can get the United States involved this will engage
the United States long-term against Iran in a war of attrition and and and and
cement a joint Israeli American approach to um uh the partition of Iran of course
uh I would just say that Iran's been around for 200 2,700 years and um I
don't think it's going to disappear anytime soon uh and what I see uh in the
uh going on at the moment uh is a repetition of various failed enterprises
elsewhere just as in the case of the Russian Ukrainian war we're told Iran is
on the ropes its economy is collapsing its people are rebelling there is great
deal of opposition to the war um and it's about to capitulate uh it can't win
uh and of course Ukraine is supposed to be winning mi6 the British intelligence
service put out all sorts of propaganda russia's constantly running out of
missiles drones whatever of course all of that is proven to be utterly false uh
but um we see this again this false triumphalism as a propaganda e uh
exercise um you know they claim that Iran is losing the war it isn't um what
is happening is that Israel for the first time since 1973 in the Ramadan or
Nyam Kipur war um is actually experiencing damage uh and uh it has it
has attacked uh an enemy with the capacity to respond and Iran is responding more and more
effectively and I can talk to you about if you want about the military uh
reasons for that but I I will say that I think we're a wash in neoonservative
propaganda and Israeli propaganda which is of course very efficacious the
Israelis are first rate at distorting reality in their favor and they're doing
it again and is the Israeli objective of regime
change and breaking up Iran into several parts largely born out of the support
that Iran offers to the axis of resistance or does Israel also feel uh a
threat whether ideological real or perceived from Iran
well Israel has effectively neutralized most of the so-called axis of resistance
uh it has devastated Gaza hamas continues to resist but um not very
effectively um it has used the cover of the war with
Iran to redouble its efforts to uh engage in ethnic cleansing of the West
Bank the level of violence by settlers Israeli settlers there against the
indigenous Arab population has gone up it has decimated Hezbollah
removed its leadership Eselon um it continues to occupy various bases in
southern Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire agreement uh it has completely
devastated Syria removed all of its self-defense capability
uh and as I said essentially forced Syria to into a a position of uh of of
of difference to Israel that is exceeds anything we've seen before it has cowed
Jordan into permitting overflight of Jordanian territory through Iraq to
attack Israel Iran and it has um it has engaged u the American forces in Iran
who Iraq sorry who control the airspace over Iraq to permit the passage of
aircraft over that country by the way those that American control in Iraq is
supposed to end in September when the Americans withdraw uh something the Iran
Iraqi parliament has repeatedly demanded which the United States has resisted so
uh I think u on the axis of resistance Israel is feeling quite comfortable that it has subdued the threat uh but Israel
has greater plans it wants total domination absolute security uh in its
region of course anyone who seeks absolute security guarantees absolute
insecurity for everyone else um and Israel has a plan um you know it Wesley
Clark uh General Clark former commander of Europe of the European forces and
mastermind of the war in Kos in in Bosnia in Kosovo um uh reported that
Israel had a plan to knock off seven countries in five years and it's pretty
much followed that scenario iran was the seventh
the others have fallen into place uh but now we hear Israelis saying well this is
all a preliminary show uh and the ultimate enemy will be Turkey and Israel
must um overpower Turkey so we have a case of overweening ambition
um and unfortunately um uh there are two factors driving this internationally one
is that Israel has had westernbacked impunity for everything it does so it
never has any consequences from its evil behavior i use that word advisedly
because there is no country now on the planet with a claim to that title of the
champion of evil who can rival Israel in in its cruelty
and immorality and its lack of respect for
global norms and international law so one factor is the western backing of Israeli impunity um the other factor uh
is uh the paranoia of Israelis who have built a state on a death cult i mean
they have created a myth of Israel which rests on the Holocaust in Europe a
celebration of victim victimization and suffering uh which guarantees
hallucinations about the threats that they face from others so nothing there
will Israel will not stop until as long as it does not have the difference of
the entire region um and of course its behavior
uh guarantees that it won't have uh the willing difference of the region uh
however intimidated others in the region may have become given what you are saying is that there
is already an upgradation in terms of Israel's ambition it's no longer just
about holding down the Palestinian nationalism or tied to it is the axis of
resistance or even um taking out the seven states as General Wesley Clark
famously made famous or infamously made famous but is going beyond that and
dominate other parts which were not necessarily part of those seven countries and you mentioned Turkey so I
think then the question comes to mind is how are the how is I mean Turkey of
course in the OIC and elsewhere is raising alarm bells now although they are not taking any concrete actions but
also the question of the person Gulf monarchs um what what are they thinking
because one view is that they are silently um while they are paying some lip
services in all these platforms because Iran is tied to the question of
Palestinian resistance movements which has such an enormous moral um sway over
the Arab world but on the other hand they are silently also rejoicing at the fact that Iran is being cut down to its
size but on the other hand Israel is also increasing its footprint and that
must be making them nervous given that situation we discussed in your last appearance on our show uh President
Trump's visit to the uh Persian Gulf we didn't see anything about uh Palestine
even being mentioned by the Arab states they were all talking about these real estate deals and Boeing deals and
investment deals so they are not acting at all but logically they should be
concerned well this all gets back to the trend in
Israeli politics which has brought theological thugs into the cabinet um
religious Zionism is represented by a map in the Knesset on the wall of the
Knesset and by some patches on Israeli army uniforms which show a greater
Israel extending from the Nile to the Euphrates including Syria Lebanon Jordan parts of
Iraq parts of northern Saudi Arabia and Egypt uh east east of the of the Nile um
and here of course this is religious uh humbug because um uh well there's
several things that are amusing here one is that the founders of Israel the Zionist founders of Israel did not
believe in God they were atheists and yet they based their claim uh on God
having given Israel uh the right to this land uh second of course if God did do
that um he gave it or maybe she I don't know gave it to Abraham uh and Abraham
is the father of the Arabs as well as uh the Israelites so um uh all of this is
religious humbug and um entirely bogus uh but this group are in charge listen
to bezel Smoltridge or Ben Kuir and you will hear uh
ambitions to annex virtually everything on the periphery of Israel uh in well of
course and then of course we've seen uh an Israeli push to exterminate the Palestinians in Gaza and now aided and
ebed I'm sorry to say by my own country Israel you you you you come from Chicago
uh some of the time at any rate and um uh in Chicago there are stockyards into
which cattle are herded animals are herded for the slaughter and the feeding
stations that have been set up uh in Gaza by a joint USIsraeli
foundation are designed exactly the same way and the result is the same people are
funneled into these stockades and then they're killed by snipers or artillery
or whatever and of course they don't get enough food to uh feed their families
and we're now told that um uh children are dying of star of not just of
starvation but thirst uh in Gaza so uh all of this this war by the way is a
wonderful cover for these incredible cruelties um so um you said so anyway I
just say that um Israel's ambitions uh are indeed absolute security and as I
said that brings absolute insecurity to everyone within reach um you're quite
right that the Arabs have taken no concrete action during um Mr trump's
visit to Riad and uh and
and the UAE um any discussion of the Palestinian issue was uh off camera
privately held and the whole thing was devoted to um um a celebration of the
real estate redevelopment possibilities in the Riviera on the
I I call it Avitz on the Mediterranean um that Mr trump um endorsed um this is
nothing new um Arab rulers uh have uh always had to balance between widespread
popular u uh more than dislike hatred of what the Israelis are doing serious
opposition for what they are doing uh and their own interests as rulers and um
they have been able to uh suppress popular demonstrations for the most part
um and and uh keep uh control despite uh
the opposition of their people to uh their their policies uh the Gulf
Cooperation Council um just to go to your last the last part of your question
um what are the reactions to the suffering of Iran under this attack uh
they vary widely i mean I think the only country Arab country that really isn't in favor of what Israel is doing and
likes it is Syria where the where Al Shara the um the president um uh you
know has seen Iran as the prime enemy for a long time and is uh apparently
happy to see Iran as you said cut down to size um elsewhere that is not the
case um uh Muhammad bin Salman the crown prince and de facto chief executive in
Saudi Arabia uh just called President Bzeskian in Tehran and and expressed uh
not only his condemnation of Israel and what it's doing but claimed to speak for
the entire Islamic world uh in expressing solidarity with Iran so this
is something interesting because it bridges the Sunni Shia divide and I must
say inside Iran itself uh we're seeing shifting politics away from uh the
emphasis on uh wadak the uh theory of
theocratic government and toward a more conventional nationalism in which the
army uh plays a larger role than the than the Islamic Republican Guard uh
does and u and far from disuniting Iranians um the attack on Iran um has
apparently united them the level of hatred of Israel has never been as white
hot as it is now and the disappointment and sense of betrayal by the United States never as strong uh so we we're in
a situation in which uh we see strange things happening because of the um
disinformation war that I mentioned earlier of the distortion of the realities um uh you know the claim that
is Iran is on the ropes as Russia was supposedly in the early stages of the
Russia Ukraine war and um that therefore it's under tremendous pressure to
capitulate we just saw a meeting in Geneva between the descendants of the
crusaders the British French and Germans uh and Iran in which you know they were
pressing Iran to capitulate um and uh were firmly rejected by Anaki
the Iranian foreign minister and I think um uh the real question is why did the
Europeans go and talk to Iran uh they didn't Iran didn't start the war uh
Israel did israel must end the war um Iran has said the minute Israel stops
firing things at it and destroying people and assassinating people and
committing u uh the aggression it has committed that Iran will uh will respond
with by ending its attacks on Israel so clearly the disruptive element is Israel
not Iran leafon the u uh European uh union
representative um uh at the G7 meeting or G6 plus1 I guess in in Canada in
Alberta claimed that the source of instability in West Asia is Iran but that is
patently false and everyone knows it is and so what sort of game are the
Europeans playing here uh they're playing a Zionist game and I come back to the fact that Mr trump who I think
genuinely did want to solve this issue um peacefully is caught between the
Zionists and his own following who are opposed to a war the latest polls in the
United States show depending on which one you look at only 16% or 19% of
Americans favoring joining Israel in this war and majorities large majorities
of Democrats and independents and even of Republicans on a lesser level opposed
to that and yet Mr trump's donors and Mr netanyahu who seems to have infiltrated
Mr trump's mind with manufactured intelligence that contradicts that of
the CIA and everyone else um uh you know he is following the directions of Israel
so here we have an anomaly and um it is deep it's one that's deeply humiliating
to me as an American um that is that not only is the United States following
foreign policies that are dictated by a foreign country um and accepting intelligence provided
by that foreign country manufactured intelligence which is self-interested on
the part of that country over its own uh intelligence apparatus but we are
actually enforcing um uh censorship uh on our population on behalf of a
foreign country we are deporting people on behalf of a foreign country we are
attacking our own universities on behalf of a foreign country um this is
remarkable uh and I don't think uh I think Mr trump's constituency
understands is beginning to understand what is going on and is pushing back
what do you think where does uh the American intelligence uh stand in in in
in in this uh conflict because on one hand the director of national intelligence says that uh we have no
basis for to conclude that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon program or
is at the verge of developing a nuclear weapon program and on the other hand we
are one of the concerns major concerns that Iran is facing um apart from the
bombing of uh Natans and other nuclear facilities isan and now the big question
is about uh for and attacks on power plants gas and oil refineries and so on
um is uh the elimination of its leadership new York Times today runs a
full column about uh the supreme leader already uh raising talks about his
successorship and uh Iranian uh leadership has now acknowledged that
there must have been major major uh intelligence security breach given so
many of our leadership was eliminated just within an hour um it's hard to
imagine that Mossad is doing this uh entirely alone but no one is sure but I
just wonder what your uh sense is about uh the CIA
well I think um uh Tulsi Gabbard the director of national intelligence
um has demonstrated the her integrity by
u faithfully reporting what the intelligence community has concluded which is as you described it that there
is no evidence that Iran has made a decision uh to build a nuclear weapon um
I think that's very I think that's been a consensus uh until recently it was the
consensus in which MSAD uh with which MSAD agreed uh however they have been
politicized by Mr netanyahu um so they've come up with a a slightly
different story it is a fact that in response to the trashing of the
so-called JCPOA the nuclear deal joint comprehensive
plan of action with Iran by Mr trump in his first term uh but Iran has r slowly
ratcheted up the enrichment level I think to gain leverage in negotiations
uh but it has not uh pushed so you know it's it has apparently enough to make
about 11 bombs with um 60% um uranium easily trans transformed over a matter
of days or weeks into 90% which is the threshold for building uh a a nuclear
weapon um it has that capacity we're told by the Iranians that anticipating
some sort of war although they didn't know when it would happen were clearly caught off guard um in part by as a
result of Mr trump's apparent focus on negotiation and opposition to Netanyahu
on the issue of an attack on Iran that they have in fact they in fact hidden
all of this trove of enriched uranium in different places um uh it's not
vulnerable um so um let me go to the point um that you raised about uh did
Mossad and and Aman which is the Israeli military intelligence do this on their
own i think the answer is clearly no and um we see in the plan that was worked
out for the attack on Iran uh an echo of the attack on Russia by Ukraine that is
u infiltrating uh armed drones uh placing them near
facilities ready to go when the signal was given this has the signature of MI6
um we also have and we know that in Azerba which as I said has been
apparently promised part of Iran if uh if if Israeli policy is successful there
is a very large CIA base it's impossible to imagine that it's not in collusion
with the with Mossad and Haman there who also have a very large presence in Azer
Ba uh but the key point here is uh far from being a spontaneous reaction to an
urgent situation this plan was put in place over years and the Israelis are
actually telling us how they did that um you know how they tracked the all of the
nuclear scientists and they they spotted where the military officers were living
and so forth and they placed drones in place and did two things the first they
carried out a lot of assassinations by the way they killed a lot of of collateral
they did a lot of collateral damage in killing mil one military in killing the
negotiator for Iran at uh with the United States um Shamani they they al
they also killed 60 people in his apartment building including 20 children so uh this is a typical Israeli
indifference to the loss of life uh by anyone and um uh sets a terrible
precedent um for anyone else in in future wars but this went on for quite a
while um simultaneously they carried out a cyber attack on Iran's air defense the
drone attack on the air defense which knocked out both of which knocked it out
for about 8 to 10 hours before the Iranians could reconstitute it the Iranians did not lose their cool uh they
developed a plan which they have followed uh since then um and I want to
just describe briefly what I think happened militarily and is happening
that is Iran had a great trove of older missiles it fired those first at Israel
in order to deplete Israeli anti-bballistic missile defenses um
didn't expect many of them would get through very few of them did um uh however as Israel's defenses have been
degraded more and more Iranian missiles are getting through and what we're now
seeing are uh first class recently developed modern missiles including
hypersonic missiles and the Hamshar
4 which uh is uh has a terminally guided warhead which then can emit some 80
separate uh bombs um and doesn't seem to be interceptable
by either the Arrow system Israel's native uh antib-bolistic defense system
or THAAD the American system which has been put in place in Israel so we have a
war of attrition going on um Iran in a normal times Iran produced about 300
missiles a month it's firing you know 10 or 12 a day it's ramped up the production it claims
it's doubled the production so it's not going to run out of missiles anytime soon whereas on the other side the
United States which has been conducting proxy wars in numerous occasions
locations um uh is depleted uh we don't
have the stock um and Israel cannot um cannot manufacture uh the stock either
so this is a war of attrition which in about 10 days very likely will contrary
to the what the press is reporting uh see Israel um at a grave disadvantage uh
in these exchanges um so um that's
what's going on militarily um and uh Iran has taken the position that it will
not engage in negotiation um until the attacks on it cease uh and
that was the position that Arachi enunciated at Geneva in his meeting with the Europeans um and I don't see any
reason to believe that's going to stop so Mr trump isn't going to get an easy out here there's no easy offramp to the
dilemma he faces i don't think he wants a war with Iran um but he's got people around him who do
and um he's apparently limited his uh circle of immediate adviserss to that
group excluding those who are not enthusiastic
interestingly those who are not enthusiastic include not only Tulsi Gabard the director of national
intelligence but apparently include Pete Hess because the people in the Pentagon
are well aware there's no way of destroying Ford except with a nuclear attack so we come down to this this
problem we you know um Iran is not a rogue state it has not been carrying out
attacks has not started a war uh with anybody um in in modern times um Iraq
started the war with the Iran Iraq war israel started the Israel Iran war um um
Israel is a rogue state um and we've seen that it doesn't seem to have any moral constraints at all feels free to
carry out genocide uh to lie in bold-faced lies while it's doing that um what's to stop Mr
netanyahu from taking out for a nuclear weapon um it would be require several
nuclear weapons probably one after the other much like the uh murder of Nasha
in Beirut where there were bunker busters one after the other i
think 30 of them required to get down to the level where uh the where he and his
entourage were lodged so this is a very dangerous moment um and um I don't know
you you are now in Beijing but um I gather you just in India i don't think
Indians and Pakistanis are particularly amused by Mr trump's claims that he personally stopped their war um I think
they had a good sense uh to recognize that crossing the nuclear threshold
would not be a good idea um and that that uh sobered up both sides um so
final point on that however is it's not unconnected to the future in West Asia
uh because to the extent that Israel has succeeded in knocking out Iran's air
defenses and we're told by Vladimir Putin that he offered to uh build air
defenses for Iran and Iran declined the offer i suppose in part because of the
tortured history of Iran and Russia as adversaries
but also maybe out of national pride um or perhaps out of a desire not to align
with Russia in a way that the United States found threatening many reasons but for whatever reason Iran did not
accept that but I think in the wake of this war uh uh it will very easily
reconsider its refusal to accept Russian help and I think the Chinese who have
been very careful um to avoid entanglements anywhere in the world um
might in fact be willing to uh supply uh weaponry like that that they supplied to
Pakistan uh which did a pretty good job in the recent war um air defense and um
uh uh to Iran uh and uh why because uh
everybody an analyzes the Chinese position in West Asia in some sort of
quasi strategic terms but I think there's more at stake the sort of world that the Chinese want to build is one in
which one nation does not attack the sovereignty of another and in which
nobody is defenseless uh and so I can and in which the right
of self-defense which Iran has Israel claims this is all about self-defense
but that is of course nonsense this is a war of aggression a war of choice an
unprovoked war if there ever was one um and u but Iran has the right of
self-defense and it could well be seen by the by the Chinese as their
international duty to help Iran uh maintain no defense so I think we're
talking about a very changed environment in terms of great power relationships in
the in the region um and I don't think anybody is reassured in on the Arab side
uh or the Turkish side or the Islamic side if you will by Mr trump's
uncertainties uh I I want to discuss a little bit more
about China and Russia in in this equation but a quick comment on how uh stretched and bloated the um American
defense industrial complex is i recently hosted Dr joanna Lee from Taiwan um
former KMD lawmaker and in one of her discussions
on Taiwan United States defense relations and defense contract she said
that Taiwan has been forced to place a lot of defense contracts from American
uh weapon sellers but they have been placing these contracts but there have been delays after delays while on the
other hand there is this uh ramping up of hysteria through DPP that Taiwan
should participate in uh antagonism against the PRC or let's say Taiwan uh
acting as a front state against uh American policy of containing um China
um I want to ask you a little bit about what you just say about Russia and uh uh
China because uh on one hand um the western media uh is telling us that
Russia and China are acting as uh bystanders as at least in the Russian
case as their allies Iran is being pummeled in in their own language um of
course the one has to remember that even in Syria uh Russia took a little while
to even plunge deep into uh uh Syrian conflict um so one can't rule out that
possibility so um comment on what your sense about Russian willingness and
ability at this point in time to participate uh in in in this conflict in the event of a full steam participation
of the United States and very briefly on China um uh I had a different reading
visa v Pakistan and Iran um um because I hosted Iranian professor um um Fuadi and
I took discussed this question and he was more or less reluctant about relying too
much on China and Russia because his his position was that China and Russia hasn't haven't done anything while uh
Gaza is being pummeled and so we can't rely on China and Russia it would be
good if they can support us but we we can't rely on that and and secondly I think in the case of Pakistan it is it's
it's slightly different because Pakistan has been uh um a a very big military
power it has been investing in its military defense for a very long time and China um is has supplied 80% of its
weapons even prior to the escalation that it had with India so it's not that it because
it just started at the moment of that escalation that all the JC fighter
planes and uh uh missiles were given on that day of day India
participated in in that misadventure i don't think there is this relationship uh with Iran it has been mostly
contractual in buying Iranian oil uh uh and and evading the western sanctions so
your comments on where China and Russia would eventually end up given President
Trump decides that he would go into a full-scale war well you described the uh Russian
relationship with Iran as an alliance it isn't uh there is a strategic partnership which basically has a
negative assurance that um neither side will aid an enemy of the other uh and it
does not commit either side to aid uh each other in the event that one is one
is attacked so it's not an alliance it's a sort of negative um u on top if you
will and um um I think u China what what was Syria for Russia if you can also
help us with that syria is a different issue entirely and I was going to come to that um Syria for the first of all
the Russians were pretty disgusted with the Assad government um they had been urging reform and and uh inclusion uh to
on that government and they had met total resistance by Assad it's very ironic that he's ended up taking uh
asylum in Russia because in fact they were very turned off by him um and they
have a very complicated I was thinking what was Syria in 2015 for Russia
how was how how was Syria different uh uh in 2015 for Russia when Russia uh
decided to participate russia Russia made a very minimal investment of force
in Syria uh which paid tremendous diplomatic dividends um and Russia
continues to value its naval base in Syria and I gather that is still uh you
know basis for that is still being worked out uh but it was a very limited
Russia had a very limited uh interest in Syria and and um it has a very different
set of interests with regard to Iran but I think um uh the the the Iranians are
absolutely correct they can't rely on anyone and you know no one um should
forget this is a country that's been around for 2,700 years in one one form
or another and um the Romans took five centuries of to try to subdue it and
failed you know I mean um this is a country that that that is accustomed to
self-reliance it also I should say in a in terms of
geopolitical position or geoeconomic position it is a major crossroads
uh the Indian effort at Chabaha to connect u through Iran to St petersburg
a north south or south north um uh transport line uh connector uh is an
illustration of the centrality of Iran in that context so is the fact that the
Chinese are beginning construction of the railroad from Qashqar through Bishkek to Tashkant and onward to um to
Thran so uh we have both a south north and a east west uh connection through
Iran which makes it a major strategic um location um let me talk about Pakistan
uh you're absolutely right of course the Pakistanis rely heavily on the Chinese for for their weaponry and it's a
long-standing relationship uh termed an all-w weather relationship
not sure that's quite accurate i think the Chinese have a very definite interest in the survival of Pakistan it
is therefore a protected state from the point of view of China and that the
interest is simple that it counters Indian hegemony in South Asia and uh
China's part of South Asia because of its uh Tibetan uh autonomous region so
it has a very compelling strategic interest geopolitical interest in
ensuring that Pakistan survives this doesn't however give it a commitment to
do anything direct except to strengthen Pakistan sufficiently to ensure its own
survival i think we might come to the same conclusion with regard to Iran but they're not yet there yet um so far and
you know I will admit in the era of the sha I personally had something to do with convincing the Chinese to normalize
with uh Iran they didn't have a relationship um this was part of the effort to enlist them in the containment
of the Soviet Union but unlike others they hung on they did
not react to the Islamic Revolution in the in an inappropriate manner and they retained a decent relationship with Iran
they are a bit beused by Iran uh the Islamic Revolution reminded them in many
ways of their own cultural revolution which was not a favorable comparison but
I what I'm saying is the weaponry that I just leave limit limit it to the quality
of the weaponry the quality of the weaponry that China has supplied to
Pakistan is now building an arms export market for China elsewhere so F-16s in
the Egyptian air force are being replaced uh by J15s
uh from uh from the from China from Chungdu so um and we're seeing we're
seeing now the beginnings of the e of exports of Chinese air defense equipment
um HQ this that and the other um uh these are knockoffs but improvements in
many cases of uh of Russian um Russian defenses which are excellent i mean uh
the Russians have Russians have superb technology in this area um so what I'm
saying is that you know every war must end somehow uh this war is not going to
end in uh the disappearance of Iran as a society or a country um and it's it's
not going to end very likely uh in in Israel going away although I would say
the likelihood of regime change in Israel as a result of this war is greater than that in Iran um because and
I'll explain that um you know Iran the Iranian government um was confronted by
its citizens with a distinct lack of enthusiasm um you know and and opposition in some
quarters belittlement um a sense that the government wasn't very competent and
it was not delivering what it should deliver to the people and um you know
and Peskian was actually elected on on a platform of addressing those issues
ironically of course he's been caught up in this Israeli series of um horrors in
the region um uh and not embraced by the West in the way he should have been um
but um Iran has been united by this war uh to an
extent that would have been unimaginable earlier um
this is an attack on the Iranian nation it's not an attack on the Ayatella
perhaps the Ayatella the supreme leader who's 86 and therefore should be
thinking about succession plans there is a mechanism in place by the way which would very rapidly produce I think
there's a council of 88 um clerics who would elect um a new uh supreme leader
Iranian constitution is u is far more complicated and resilient than many
imagine um anyway um uh he um uh whether
he stays or not this is not about individuals and here we come to the very
naive naive belief on the part of the Israelis and some Westerners that somehow if you change the leadership the
interests of the country and its resolve collapse i don't think that happens i'd
like to know where that was and I also would like to know why uh bombing could
not change the regime in Vietnam but it will change it in
Iran um you know I don't see did it change it did the government fall in
Britain fall during the blitz or did the British people unite behind Churchill um
you know I think he was a gifted orator bit of a fool in some ways I think but anyway um uh and certainly a man out of
his depth in terms of modern society i I guess they have I guess they have their
I guess they Yeah sorry no I just want to say uh by contrast with the new
Iranian unity Israel is greatly divided
uh the the the various pillars of the state the army
the intelligence agencies are all at odds with the foreign minister uh the
secular population detests the theocratic thugs that are in the cabinet
uh the settlers are on the rampage against the government the ultraorththodox fear conscription and
are ill at ease um Israeli liberals such as they are um within that racist
um enclave of democracy um uh rather like South African uh African democracy
was a democracy just not for everybody um this uh within this democracy people
are deeply upset about the effort to destroy the independence of the judiciary uh anti-democratic moans
And Israel's in trouble when you see Ben the minister of security arguing that uh
the anyone watching Alazra should be subject to criminal penalties you can
tell that there's a problem he's trying to hold the truth from the people military censorship is being broken in
some ways uh by outlets like Alazer and so um that's why I say just to wind this
up um Iran has a succession process that
is imminent that is established that is institutionalized that has been united on a national level
by this war um Israel does not have those strengths um and while the public
in Israel uh has not risen up against the government for this for the
suffering that they are now um experiencing um Israelis do not have a reputation as
stoics um they have a reputation for um not
cowardice but um emotional reactions to threats
um which involve immigration and other things so I think
um uh how is this going to end i don't know but I mean I don't expect either Iran or Israel to disappear but I think
it's going to change the complexion of the whole region it's going to redraw relations between great powers and all
this is without assume assuming that Mr trump does not foolishly attack Nan
where his own military would tell him uh you can't take out fore except with
nuclear weapons which I don't think even Trump would be inclined to employ um so
uh if he attacks Iran Iran has already said and I believe them that they will take out American bases and personnel
throughout the entire region um uh they will sink ships they will they will um
fire at bases like Alade or u u um
oh dear now I can't remember the name of the air base in northern Iraq that um um
um I know something rather anyway it doesn't matter but um there are lots of
American personnel within easy reach of Iran and they will suffer so um
u in the current circumstances in which the great majority of the American people are deeply disqued and and
displeased by Mr trump's betrayal of his platform as a candidate that he would
bring peace to the world he would unite the world when he's doing the opposite
um you know the reaction in the United States would not be like that at Pearl after Pearl Harbor if there were
significant loss so and you know even if there were uh such a reaction we are not
in a position to become the arsenal of anyone at this point because of the depletion of our military-industrial
base which you referred to uh
one of the uh things that a lot of people thought might be a way out of this uh uh uh conflict was that uh while
the bombing campaign and this was believed even by Israeli national security adviser that it would not be
possible to eliminate the nuclear program um so unless we are talking about a regime change the other
possibility is that the bombing campaign would uh exert enormous pressure on Iran
to capitulate more um in the parallel negotiations that it was having with the
United States but what now has effectively happened is that as uh foreign minister Abbas Arai said that we
have stopped talking to the Americans and the Europeans are just uh jokers i
mean they are still repeating these uh uh caricatures about uh Israel's right
to self-defense uh zero enrichment um uh heavily limiting its Iran's ballistic
missiles program which is like saying Iran that commits suicide or surrender which is never going to happen but
since talks between the United States and Iran has stopped u it appears to me
that the situation is extremely dangerous Because now the only
possibility I can see as a way out would be to go on and on with this conflict or
even take America into it and then spreading this um conflict um within the
region so that's my final question or comment um and um respond to it and I'll
let you go well um that's not a simple question um
uh has none of your questions have been simple um I believe there are still contacts between the United States and
Iran uh we can talk what is not happening is a negotiation and the
reason there is no negotiation is because um Israel's uh totalistic
demands have been adopted by the United States that is no reprocessing no
missile force no no relations with the so-called axis of resistance
uh surrender subjugation in other words reducing Iran to the level of Syria uh which is not going to
be accepted by any Iranian u a related point is the obvious one that to the
extent this is conceived as a regime change operation there's no reason to believe that the successor regime would
be anything but more ardent in developing uh a deterrent
um so um that is a couple points i think there is a way out of this um that can
answer both uh Iranian and uh and American if not Israeli um demands um I
think Mr witoff actually agreed at one point to enrichment of the 3.67%
level and then was forced to retract by the Israel lobby um and is now adamant
that there can be no reprocessing um you could do a couple of things first of all you could try someone else as an
interlocutor with the Iranians since he has discredited himself by wobbling all over the place not being consistent and
not delivering on uh the results of the talks second um the Iranians apparently
proposed and that there be uh reprocessing done on a multinational
regional basis that is the Saudis and others join in the reprocessing of fuel
um which would um you know provide checks and balances since the Saudis
have absolutely no interest in facilitating an Iranian nuclear weapon and nor does the UAE another obvious
participant um the Iranians however have said this has to be done on Iranian soil
um not abroad well there are a few little islands called the lesser tombs
in the Gulf of uh in the Persian Gulf near the straits of Hormuz
which uh Iran and UAE contest iran says these are Iranian uae says no they're
they're Amirati well do the reprocessing there um then
both sides can have what they want um Iran can claim it's on Iranian soil um
others can have a participation that that is a guarantee against u against an
Iranian nuclear weapon um so I mean I think there are imaginative ways here to
solve this problem if uh if imagination rather than emotional uh anger is
applied uh but the key to this is that you know let's go back and just review
what the situation is at follow here we have a nuclear power Israel undeclared
but still well known to be a nuclear power attacking a non-uclear power in order to maintain its nuclear monopoly
in the region um it has done so in violation of every international law and
covenant including the UN charter that is imaginable it has done so with apparent impunity from the west will the
impunity continue from others this is where the Russians the Chinese the
so-called global south come in you know uh do people really want to see the
norms of the future built on Israeli behavior or would they rather continue
the postw World War II order which is now in tatters but is not impossible to
reconstruct um so uh again you know we
have a bricks meeting coming up in Rio de Janeiro in what about uh 2 3 weeks I
think July 8 or 8 or nine something like that um there's an opportunity for
people to talk about this issue in a constructive way um and to propose a
solution um by the way as I said earlier uh I think uh certainly Israel but
possibly Iran as well are going to be fairly low on ammunition by then u so uh
it might be a good time for everybody to pull back a bit um so I think if you
know I wouldn't give up on diplomacy um unfortunately I have to say my country doesn't seem to know what it is at the
moment u but perhaps we a miracle will happen and we will rediscover it um one
of the great problems here to be honest is the essential incompetence of the
American government u the so-called deep state meaning the competent element of
the government that persists from administration to administration has been gutted um our policy is driven not
by firm grasp of reality by but by paranoid hallucinations
uh we imagine debt threats and here we see the entire Iraq invasion scenario
replayed you know you've got to get these methods of mass destruction
uh and remove them well there weren't any well you know here we have a non-existent nuclear bomb program that
has to be destroyed that's what the Europeans were talking about in Geneva so this is the you know the infeasible
in in in in search of the non-existent it doesn't make any sense and um there
maybe someone can make sense out of all this um uh in the end and I'm sorry to
say I don't think it will be Mr trump or my government in Washington if it is my
government I'm not sure at these days which which government it is so um we
will leave it there uh I hope uh this has been useful uh and um wish you
uh all the best and keep up the good work thank you so much Ambassador Freeman um have a wonderful rest of the
day hi my name is Aishman i along with Jotis man have started this platform the
last two years we have tried to build content for the left and progressive forces we have interviewed economists
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It’s Already Happening — And You’ve Been Distracted: Interview with Seyed Mohammad Marandi
by SAHİN Kamera
6/25/25



Transcript

it's not just cruise missiles it's also
um ballistic missiles it's it's drones
iran hasn't used a some of its key
assets because it doesn't want the
Israelis to know how to deal with them
so um it has a a diverse set of missiles
and drones to use against the Israeli
regime and it tries not to use
everything so that it can remain
um an unknown for future
and again uh oh the vast majority of
Iranian missiles have not have not been
used they've been untouched
uh Iran and uh for example they spoke
about destroying launchers first of all
a lot of those images of launchers were
just decoys and missiles and you saw
there was no secondary explosions the
same is true with radar and so on but
Iran has thousands of uh launchers iran
doesn't like the Israelis were saying
they have 300 or something thousands of
launchers even if you look at just one
or two of the bases when they're opened
up for you know when they were first
opened up and we saw footage of them we
saw just from that footage in each case
tens if not almost 100 launchers just in
a single base uh in in the parts that we
saw so Iran doesn't have a shortage of
anything what it has to do I think is
that it has to uh strengthen its air
defense systems strengthen its uh
capabilities for for drones and that is
more than doable because Iran has
developed air defense systems itself it
has good technology and it has very good
relations with countries that are very
advanced in this regard so I think it's
going to be a top priority the Israelis
you know the Israelis are in trouble
and the Iranians I think they came came
out on top again the only segment of
Iranian society that I've seen that is
unhappy are those who who said "Let's
keep fighting." Yeah but I think the
argument in Iran goes that you know if
even if we keep fighting ultimately it's
going to end with a ceasefire and it's
going to end with a crisis at home for
Netanyahu and it's going to end with
more Iranians
civilians being killed if Iran feels
that it had the upper hand despite the
blitz Greek despite the betrayal of the
regime in Washington
then
why why not have this ceasefire sooner
rather than later
i would understand if if for example if
if Iran had a ceasefire
before like on day three or day four or
day five I would say no that's not right
because the Israelis were still they
still had the advantage and the Iranians
were you know regrouping and they were
beginning to res they they restored the
balance but they were still you know
hurt from day one because what happened
on day one but now I think it would just
be we would keep striking ing them they
would keep striking us we would keep
striking them it would not be good for
them but at the end it would end in the
a ceasefire and uh the same sort of
situation that Netanyahu is going to be
experiencing in the days and weeks ahead
would be experienced with a greater
delay
i think that's the calculation yeah
donald Trump doesn't agree with some
parts of the mainstream media that
they're talking about that the is
American attack on Iran was not
successful the way that Donald Trump is
trying to picture it what has happened
during the American attack in Iran what
is the picture what is the the the
evaluation assessment current assessment
of the Iranian authorities
i don't pretend to know because
obviously that would be secret the
important one is for do
uh Esvahan
is easily replaced it's not it's it's
not something huge and it's not
something difficult for Iran natans was
less well protected anyway but Iran
removed its assets from this town and it
from what we what seems to be the case
is that the United States informed Iran
beforehand and Iran removed assets from
Fordo
so the most important thing about Fordo
is a the scientists and overwhelmingly
they're alive a few scientists were
murdered along with their families and
neighbors and children and and and
friends
but overwhelmingly they're alive so
they're the most important thing the
second most important thing are is the
equipment iran has that and Iran what
what made fordo and everything else
there are factories across the country
that that do that so Iran has this broad
infrastructure across the country this
is not irreplaceable and the assets
apparently were removed i don't have I
don't know secrets i don't know what
happened in Ford i know that many
Americans are now saying that there
wasn't damage and Trump is saying that
it was totally destroyed i don't know i
don't think it was to totally destroyed
but it's based on the guess and it's
based on things that people have said to
me who I'm not entirely sure they're
they they know but there there are
people who are usually who don't talk
nonsense in general but that doesn't
mean that they're right so I don't know
what happened in for but that there was
without a doubt damage there was damage
to Iran's radars there was damage to
Iran's air defenses there was damage to
civil society there was people killed
there was damage to people's homes to
hospitals to the right crescent society
and to the nuclear program but couple of
things come out of this one is that Iran
has a stronger hand in dealing with
international atomic energy agency
because it betrayed Iran and that
strengthens Iran's nuclear program in
its own way in a long way two that
segment of Iranian society that thought
that the West was friendly and that the
problem is ours you know liberals parts
of the upper middle class upper class
their worldview has been shattered and
they see the West the United States for
what it is especially since it betrayed
Iran at the negotiating table and and it
the US struck Iran right after Iran
negotiated with the European three so
with regards to public perceptions
things are not good for the West and I
think it's going to increase or
strengthen the narrative in Iran or the
argument I should say the argument in
Iran for improving relations with the
global south and I think the
administration the current
administration is also
uh looking
in that direction that we should focus
more on the global south rather than rap
with the west so that you know these
these are these are serious things that
will that will have an impact in the
days ahead again the dissatisfaction
uh that exists is among those who say we
should have continued and I know some of
Iran supporters abroad are saying no
Iran should have done more
the government has to calculate a number
of things one is it has to calculate
uh is it worth having all these people
killed what do you get out of having
more civilians murdered by the Israeli
regime do you get more leverage is it
going to change the situation in the
Israeli regime and two Iran has to look
in the long run that it it wants to
consolidate its position and the
position of the resistance in the global
south because in the long run uh Israel
is not going to be defeated by armed
forces it's not going to be overrun
that's never been the plan the plan has
always been to degrade it until it
finally becomes unsustainable that's how
it's always been there's never been
anything other and that and that is what
the resistance has done in this 2021
months hezbollah they keep they keep
saying Hezbollah has been weakened
hezbollah also weakened Israel hamas has
been weakened hamas has weakened Israel
islamic jihad has been weakened islamic
jihad has weakened Israel ansar Allah
has weakened Israel and Iran has more
than anyone else weakened Israel so
Israel is a much is is much weaker than
before it is despised across the world
and that is that is you know going down
the right path but if Iran wants to in
the long run outmaneuver the regime to
defeat the regime it wants to have
friends across the world people public
opinion which is now with Iran people
see Iran as the hope and the resistance
as the hope but also Iran wants
governments to be on its side because
that strengthens the resistance so Iran
has to show the international community
the global south that we we're not just
out there to kill or we're not just out
there to create some sort of regional
war and economic crisis we are the sane
actors we are the reasonable actors they
are insane they are unreasonable they
are dangerous they target uh civilian
nuclear programs and I think that that
has been a success yes I I would love it
if Iran could keep hammering the Israeli
regime without having anyone killed and
with this the whole international
community cheering on but Iran has many
calculations
uh and u based on those calculations
it said that okay now is the time
netanyahu is begging
let him now pay the political price at
home so let's see how it plays out
inside the regime
last night Iran attacked the US bases in
Qatar and Iraq
and what was the main goal of attacking
just showing the United States that if
you attack us again we're going to
attack you or you've been sending Iran
was sending some sort of messages to the
Arab states in the Gulf region Gulf
region to not participate to not
collaborate if something happens in the
future considering the conflict
well Iraq is is complicated and I to I
mean I I don't want to get into Iraq
because I haven't really been following
it closely but I think the Israelis have
been bombing Iraq yesterday and they
were bombing civilian radar
installations and so on because they
were claiming that uh I I think that
they were they they were assuming that
they were helping Iran i I'm not quite
sure so I have to look into that and
then get back to Iraq but in the case of
Gata the attack of course was intended
to send a message
iran could have hit back much harder but
Iran chose not to do so because what
Iran wanted to say is that look the
United States can be we can hit the
United States trump says don't touch us
iran touched them and Trump didn't do
anything in the Some would say well you
should have fired 500 missiles yes maybe
you know we we could we could do that
but the focus is on Israel and Israel
would love to see a war between Iran and
the United States because that would
just that would you know ease the burden
on the Israeli regime and and if there
is a war between Iran and the United
States and there's a global economic
crisis then the international community
will look at our region differently we
want the focus to be on American
aggression we want it to be focused on
Israeli uh illegitimacy
so you're on hit back at the Americans
to send a message which I think was
impressive you're hitting Isra the
Israeli regime simultaneously as as the
Americans and you're also sending a
message to these despotic regimes that
have no that do nothing for the
Palestinians katar is no friend of the
Palestinians no is these regimes are in
the American camp anyone who thinks
otherwise is just deceiving themselves
or and of course there are people lots
of people on the payroll
21 months we've seen nothing from any of
these countries the Republic of Azaran
in bed with Israeli regime erdogan in
bed with Israeli regime Emirates Jordan
all of them are in bed with Israeli
regime there's no doubt about it so you
know if if people want to direct their
anger they should direct them at those
who are in bed with the Israeli regime
uh I think what Iran did was impressive
but it's it's it's in the interest of
the Israeli regime for Iran to get into
a war with the United States that's what
they want so why should we do what they
want the Americans don't want it because
it would be destructive for them so why
should we
you know let the Israeli regime get away
with it start a different war iran is
prepared for a war with the United
States iran is prepared to take out the
Persian Gulf you know all its assets but
that's that's the like the last case
scenario
your own viewers if that happens they
will not have jobs they will not have
internet we will not the world our world
tomorrow will not be the world that we
are living in right now that's a heavy
price to pay for everyone so if the
Israelis want it then I think people
should assume that we should be careful
not to do what the Israeli regime wants
and the outcome of the conflict between
Iran and Israel Iran on one side Israel
and the United States on the other side
how is that going to influence the
relationship between Iran the Arab and
the Arab states
well Iran has been careful not you know
I when I'm critical as you know of all
these of all these regimes but I'm not
in government and that's why I feel free
to say these things and sometimes
politicians in Iran or foreign ministry
people they used to come and say why did
you say this or why did you tweet that
they said look I'm not in government
and I I think they've come to recognize
that uh there should be a you
There should be a difference between
what someone like myself or others say
what the government says the government
continues to pursue good ties and Iran
will continue to try to cultivate better
ties with region with with its neighbors
that's that's that goes without saying
what I'm saying is to your audience that
those who think that you know through Al
Jazzer is doing a service is doing
sentcom
in Gatar is there to protect Israel
it it's for Israel who's paying for that
base
is Katar is not just given that land
they pay for the US occupation of that
land all of it so if it costs $500
million a year or whatever whatever the
price I guess is paying for it not the
United States this is a huge gift it's a
huge gift to the United States and it's
a huge gift to Israel so you know they
all these countries have American bases
all those bases are basically to the
Israeli regime and um but still Iran
want as the empire declines and as
public opinion is tilting further away
from Israel and as bricks countries are
on the rise many of these countries in
the Persian Gulf may feel pressure to
change policies slightly subtly they may
not but in any case Iran wants to use
whatever opportunity that is possible to
create a wedge between the Israeli
regime and wherever else it can in the
region and beyond
we know that Iran was participating in
military exercises with Russia and China
since 2014
how the way that the United States
behaved during this conflict attacked
Iran something surprising something new
that wasn't there before how is that
going to influence the Iran's future
strategy in terms of because Adam Putin
in St petersburg International Economic
Forum said that the Iranians said we
don't need any weapon from Russia to
come to Iran and
how is that going to change is that
going to change the the attitude on the
part of the Iranian government the way
that they see the future and the
conflict as time goes by
well I don't want to comment on public
comments uh from Russia but all I can
say is that the relationship between
Iran Russia and China is very good and
that both of them have condemned the
Israeli regime and both of them have
excellent relations with Iran and both
of them will continue to have excellent
relations with Iran and I think probably
I think for for certain after what has
happened in Gaza and what has happened
with the Israeli and American aggression
against Iran the relationship between
these countries will move closer sir but
you know the the military relationship
between Iran and Russia exists
i I I have to check the wording of
President Putin maybe he's speaking
about like some particular date or some
particular point in time like right now
but it's clear that Iran and Russian
military ties are
they're very uh they're very much uh uh
influence an important part of the
relationship
and they are ongoing
so you know what exactly he meant i we'd
have to go and see what his wording is
because he may be saying it in a
specific way to be vague but uh Iran
helps Russia and Russia helps Iran and I
don't see that uh this continuing in the
future here is what Donald Trump tweeted
iran will never rebuild their nuclear
facilities how he's so certain about it
how where does it come from in your
opinion
iran will never rebuild it
well Trump Trump says
you know something every day
never you know Trump said he was against
the war and the next day he was gloating
about supporting the Israelis and being
behind it nothing that Trump says we we
should take at face value he wakes up
the morning says something he's he's a
serial liar he's uh uh he's dishonest in
and politically he's deceptful he's
deceitful he's deceitful uh so anything
that he says really doesn't matter and
if if President Putin says something you
have to check the wording but if
president if Trump says something it you
don't even know if he was you know what
he was up to that morning or what had
happened that afternoon so I wouldn't I
wouldn't take that seriously he said you
know he spoke about uh many things uh
when it comes to Iran and many things
when it comes to China many things when
it comes to Russia and others but he he
couldn't achieve them iran will continue
to develop its nuclear program the
empire is weakening israel has faced a
severe defeat netanyahu in particular
has suffered a major defeat time is on
Iran's side and Iran will continue to
take advantage of this fact that time is
on its side before wrapping up and the
side and on the side of the resistance
because the world is changing
one of the main problems with the
Israeli attack on Iran was the counter
inelligence that Israelis were preparing
for this attack for as you mentioned for
a decade what is the plan on on the part
of the Iranian intelligence Iranian army
Iranian society to go against these sort
of activities to to not happen in the
future
well that is another thing just as I
said that Iran is going to deal with its
military shortcomings
uh to be able to better
uh deal with any threat by the Israeli
regime or the United States in future
the Israelis really you know went all
out in all of their assets in Iran many
of them were of course Iran has millions
of uh illegal and legal migrants in the
country they have uh uh well you know
illegal or unregistered whatever you
know term you'd like to use but they
used a lot of these people uh poor
people some of them t have tendencies
towards ISIS and al-Qaeda and you know
takiti ideology so they did use a
disproportionate number of these sort of
people the takiti sort uh in in in
the drone attacks and and and and so on
so Iran is going to deal with that but a
lot of the cells have been uh exposed a
lot of people have been arrested and I
think you know this is something that
the Israeli regime will not be able to
do so easily anymore
uh because uh it's been going all out in
using its assets and one by one they've
been discovered mostly by the public so
this is also uh something that uh is not
going to go well for the Israeli regime
because the Iranians are going to be
continue to focus on this issue decrease
its vulnerabilities both with their
defenses but also with terrorists and
and uh Israeli assets and so I think in
future if there is some sort of conflict
Iran will have a stronger hand
thank you so much professor Mandi for
being with us today great pleasure as
always
thank you Nema always a pleasure always
an honor have a very good day

LIVE: Israeli Cities Witness Heavy Damage After War with Iran | Israel-Iran | Israel-Iran Ceasefire
India Today
Streamed live 7 hours ago #israeliranwar #middleeastconflict #donaldtrump
LIVE: Israeli Cities Witness Heavy Damage After War with Iran | Israel-Iran | Israel-Iran Ceasefire

The hostilities between Israel and Iran continued as Tel Aviv has now alleged that Tehran has violated the ceasefire, which both parties agreed upon earlier on Tuesday. The IDF said that Iran launched two ballistic missiles hours after the ceasefire deal. However, Iran denied the allegations of disrespecting the truce.

Israel cannot dictate the future of the Middle East
by David Hearst
Middle East Eye
Jun 25, 2025

David Hearst, editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, says Israel’s blitz on Iran has collapsed into a strategic defeat. In 12 days, none of Israel’s war aims were achieved. Trump claimed Iran’s nuclear programme had been obliterated, but US intelligence quickly contradicted him. Iran’s core infrastructure survived, and key materials were moved before the strikes. Iran may have already built deeper facilities elsewhere.

Israel also failed to destroy Iran’s missile arsenal. After Trump declared a ceasefire, Iran launched new waves of attacks, hitting Beersheba and strategic sites across Israel. The damage was greater than anything Hamas or Hezbollah had inflicted.

Hearst says Iran did not need to win outright. It only needed to keep fighting. Its missile strikes pinned Israeli civilians in shelters, drained missile defences, and exposed Israel’s limits. The quick victory Netanyahu sought never came. Iran’s ability to stand firm has shifted the balance.

He argues this was never about ending a nuclear weapons programme. It was a clash between two worldviews: one that insists Israel must dominate the region, and one that resists occupation.

Hearst concludes that Netanyahu’s long project to destroy Iran may have gone too far. Israel has exposed its population to a new kind of war and gained little in return. The result is not dominance, but danger.



Transcript

the luftwaffer's assessment of the blitz
on coventry on the 14th of november 1940
was that it was an astonishing
technological achievement the chief nazi
propagandist joseph gerbles was so
delighted with the raid he coined a new
word to covenate it was not long however
before the taste of total victory turned
sour the production of aero engines and
aircraft parts was quickly shifted to
shadow factories capacity had only been
dented not destroyed within months
factories were back to full production.

It has taken israel's high command just
12 days to see that total victory they
claimed to have achieved in the first
hours of their blitz on iran turned
something that looks much more like a
strategic defeat this 12-day war ended
with none of israel's three war aims
being met trump's claim that iran's
nuclear enrichment program had been
completely and fully obliterated has
within a day been flatly contradicted by
the intelligence arm of the pentagon who
sent in the b2 bombers the defense
intelligence agency found in a
preliminary assessment that the us
military strikes on the three of iran's
nuclear facilities did not destroy the
core components of tehran's nuclear
program and only set it back a matter of
months according to leaks published in
the cnn and the new york times it said
the bunker busting bombs closed the
tunnels but may not have hit the
chambers underneath one of the complexes
for daw containing the uranium spinning
centrifuges and no one had accounted for
400 kg of highly-enriched uranium
independently we know that iran had time
to move its centrifuges and the h eu out
of harm's way and that its atomic energy
chief had already signaled iran had
built another deeper set of bunkers in a
mountain elsewhere in other words
iranians could already have behaved
exactly the way wartime britain did when
commentary was hit to disperse
manufacturing which was key to the war
effort the second israeli war aim was
the total destruction of iran's
ballistic missile fleet itself evidently
that has not been destroyed either
because in the hours after trump's
announcement of a ceasefire it sent
further waves of missiles killing four
israelis in bashiba israel sustained
more damage from iran's missiles in 12
days than it did from 2 years of hamas's
homegrown rockets or indeed months of
war with hezbollah strategic targets
have been hit including an oil refinery
a power station and a research center
iran has also claimed strikes on
israel's military facilities although
israel's strict censorship regime makes
these assertions difficult to verify in
12 days israeli crews have come to grips
with a sort of damage to apartment
blocks that before only israeli planes
had inflicted on gaza and lebanon and it
came as something of a shock and finally
the iranian regime is still standing if
anything the nation has rallied round it
out of fury at israel and america's
trickery and unprovoked aggression
israeli prime minister benjamin
netanyahu's other great achievement
dragging the us into a war now looks
like a poison chalice for how much
longer will that banner thank you mr
president be up on a central highway in
tel aviv after trump applied a massive
and premature handbreak on netanyahu's
war machine trump began the war by
refuting any us involvement in israel's
surprise attack on iran when he saw it
was succeeding trump tried to muscle in
saying it could only have been achieved
with us technology as the attack wore on
trump suggested that he too would not be
opposed to regime change but in the
final 24 hours trump lurched from
demanding iran's unconditional surrender
to thanking iran for warning the us of
its intentions to strike aluduade air
base in qatar and declaring peace in our
time far from turbocharging ambitions to
grind iran into a gaza dust trump just
called time on a war that had only just
started and unlike in gaza netanyahu is
in no position to defy the will of the
us president as we all saw on tuesday
when trump used megaphone diplomacy to
stop israeli pilots from continuing
their bombardment no democrat president
has ever talked publicly to israel in
this language before trump wanted his
tour of triumph that he's going to have
in the hague in nato and was not going
to let netanyahu spoil it iran on the
other hand is emerging from his conflict
with strategic gains although the
immediate battering it has sustained and
the hundreds of casualties it has
suffered should not be underestimated
its air defenses failed to bring down a
single israeli war plane although they
appeared to have downed drones israeli
warplanes were free to roam the skies of
iran and its intelligence had penetrated
deep into the revolutionary guard corps
and the iranian scientific community
these were all clear failings but none
proved decisive in the end all iran had
to do was in the words of the 1940s era
britain keep calm and carry on that
meant sending a steady stream of
missiles towards israel knowing that
even if all were knocked out of the sky
the entire population was penned up in
shelters and israel's precious and
expensive supply of arrow missiles was
being steadily consumed what iran thus
established was exactly what the israeli
economy could not tolerate after 20
months of conflict a war of attrition on
a second front netanyahu needed a quick
knockout and despite the initial shock
and awe it never came for in the end
this conflict was never about ending a
nuclear bomb program that had never
existed in the first place if it had
iran would have had long ago been able
to build a bomb this conflict was about
a war of two narratives the first goes
like this the hamas attack on the 7th of
october 2023 was a strategic mistake no
force that arabs or iranians can muster
can ever match the power of israel and
the us combined or even israel armed
with the latest generation of weapons
israel will always defeat its enemies on
the battlefield as it did in 1948 1967
1973 1978 and 1982 the only option for
arabs is to recognize israel on its
terms which means to trade with it and
leave palestinian statethood for another
day this view is held with various
variations and unofficially by all the
arab leaders and their military and
security chiefs the alternative
narrative is that while the state of
israel exists in its current form there
can be no peace it is the state of
israel that is the source of the
conflict as opposed to the presence of
jews in palestine resistance to
occupation will always exist no matter
who takes up or puts down the cudgel as
long as that occupation continues iran's
existence as a regime that defies the
israeli will to dominate is more
important than its strategic rocket
force its ability to stand up to israel
and the us and to keep fighting shows
the same spirit that palestinians in
gaza have shown in refusing to be
starved into surrender iran's position
as it contemplates a post-war round of
talks with the us can only have
strengthened firstly iran is entitled to
have a guarantee from the americans not
to walk away from the talks again as
they have done twice before once when
trump withdrew from the iran nuclear
deal in may 2018 and again this month
when the envoy steve witkov was directly
engaged in talks with the iranians
according to informed sources wititov
and iranians were discussing something
that looks suspiciously like the joint
comprehensive plan of action that trump
had walked away from all those years ago
there are other options as i and others
have argued being part of the
non-prololiferation treaty the npt
served iran's interests poorly it could
walk away from the treaty having every
incentive now to develop a nuclear bomb
to stop israel from ever doing this
again but in reality iran does not have
to do anything immediately it has
weathered maximum pressure sanctions and
a 12-day armageddon with the latest us
weaponry in use it does not need an
agreement because the last one
negotiated with the former us president
barack obama did not lead to sanction
relief this is not likely either this
time because whatever trump says or does
it needs a twothirds majority in
congress to pass it in the meantime iran
can rebuild and repair the damage it has
sustained in these attacks and if past
experience is anything to go by it will
emerge stronger than before for israel
the balance sheet of 12 days of war is
decidedly mixed yes it has shown its
fist can extend to,200 km and beyond but
no israel is not a regional military
hegman and cannot dictate the future
shape of the middle east the price it
has had to pay is high it has swapped
hamas's homegrown rockets for iran's
ballistic missiles it has swapped an
indirect enemy who uses proxies for a
direct one which has now no hesitation
in keeping the entire population of
israel in its bunkers netanyahu's
lifelong dream of slaying the iranian
dragon may have proved to be a bridge
too far

Prof. John Mearsheimer: Why Israel's War Against Iran BACKFIRED
Glenn Greenwald
Jun 25, 2025



Transcript

i of course understand that Israel I'm
sure has a part of their kind of
national psyche that views the Iranians
as their gravest threat and obviously
doesn't want them to have nuclear
weapons in part out of fear that they're
going to use it but
I think the bigger fear in both Israel
and United States about Iran getting
nuclear weapons is that if Iran became a
nuclear state
Israel would no longer be able to
completely dominate the region as
they've been doing i mean we've seen
over the last few years it's not just
Gaza not just the West Bank they just
bombed Syria again this week they took
credit for the regime change there they
took land from Lebanon and bombed
obviously Lebanon repeatedly over the
last several years they bombed Yemen and
now they just bombed Iran so basically
they can do whatever they want because
of their military superiority it's been
the policy of Washington to ensure that
Israel maintains military superiority in
that region so is the I I get the
concern about Iran having nuclear
weapons because they might use them
that's you know you don't want to have
you want to have fewer rather than more
countries having nuclear weapons I guess
but isn't the bigger fear that if Iran
gets them Israel would lose its ability
to just bully the entire region and
ultimately control the entire region as
well
well I think there's no question that
Israel is in a position militarily now
where it can act as a bully in the
region and we don't want to as
underestimate the importance of Israel's
alliance with the United States i mean
the two of them act as a tag team in the
region uh and that's a huge force
multiplier for the Israelis i have a
slightly different view of this than you
do and I believe that if you go back uh
to the period after Israel was created
the Israelis have had a deep-seated
interest in basically wrecking uh all of
their Arab neighbors uh what's happening
now to Syria or what's happened to Syria
over the past uh year and a half is what
the Israelis would like to do to Iran uh
they want to uh fracture their neighbors
break them apart if possible uh when the
Israelis talk about regime change in
Iran they're talking about more than
regime change they want to break Iran
into constituent parts the Israelis for
example have had a deep-seated interest
in creating a Kurdish state and I've
always wondered why the Israelis were
interested in creating a Kurdish state
and paying so much attention to Kurdish
nationalism it's because if you created
a Kurdish state you would break apart
Iraq Iran Syria and even Turkey and this
has long been their goal it's a divide
and conquer policy so I think it's just
important to understand that they do
want to be the most powerful state in
the region as you were alluding to but
it's more than that they believe that
the way to do that is to be joined at
the hip with the United States number
one number two be the only state in the
region that has nuclear weapons number
three be by far the most powerful
conventional force in the region and
number four break apart their rivals or
put their rivals in a position where
they are heavily dependent on the United
States this is what they've done with
Jordan and with Egypt jordan and Egypt
have hardly any maneuver room visav
Israel because they're economically
dependent on Uncle Sam and Uncle Sam has
told them that if they challenge Israel
in any way uh the United States will
make them pay uh economically uh so
that's how you deal with Egypt and
Jordan and with countries like Syria
countries like Lebanon countries like
Iran countries like Iraq the basic goal
there is to wreck those countries uh to
break them apart uh to make them
dysfunctional uh and that's that that's
the second goal that's the regime change
goal uh when you dig down deep so let me
ask you about that then
was there were there significant
advances made in this bombing campaign
that was pretty intense and pretty heavy
in in Iran principally by Israel but
also by the United States in terms of
destabilizing
and wrecking that country or do you
think the government of Iran emerges
still pretty strong and very difficult
to dislodge people and trying to
dislodge them for 45 years since 1979
and they they they haven't got anywhere
how do you see this their strength and
and and whether they've been
sufficiently weakened and destabilized
all the evidence Glenn is that the
bombing campaign by Israel uh against
Iran which started of course on June
13th has had exactly the opposite effect
uh in terms of the leadership of uh Iran
uh the hardliners have taken over the
revolutionary guards are in control more
than they ever were uh the Ayatollah
Hamini has been weakened uh because he's
been forced to basically go into hiding
and he's not in a position where he can
command the country in any meaningful
way and furthermore all the evidence is
that the people are rallying around the
flag and we have a rich history of this
happening every time a country launches
a bombing campaign against another
country for the purposes of regime
change we have a rich historical record
here and there is not a single instance
i want to emphasize not a single
instance where bombing from the air
alone has caused regime change and all
the evidence is that it causes a rally
around the flag effect so the idea that
the Israelis are going to cause regime
change with their air campaign is not a
serious argument and if you look at
what's happened uh over the past 12 days
it has not turned out that the country
is on the verge of regime change if
anything the regime is in a better
situation today than it was on June 12th
the day before the campaign started so
this is a failure
i I think if Israelis and other
advocates of regime change in Iran heard
you say that I've seen them do this
before that they would point to the
counter example of Libya
where and Netanyahu specifically cited
Gaddafi as the model he wanted Iran to
follow imagine hearing that like oh I
think the model we should give to Iran
and make them follow was the one Gaddafi
followed which of course led to not just
regime change but him being raped to
death on on the street by by a gang of
madmen and there I think you can make
the argument can't you that we did
actually succeed in destroying the
regime solely through a bombing campaign
no what happened there is that you had a
ground war right uh we didn't have to
invade but uh we had proxies who had
gone to war uh against uh uh Gaddafi and
we then came in with air power but here
the argument is that you come in with
air power there's no revolution there's
no war on the ground and air power
precipitates a revolution
uh that doesn't happen again to go back
to the Libya case the revolution had
already started there was or the
rebellion call it what you want and
there was a huge ground war taking place
and that's when air power came in uh and
in those sorts of circumstances you can
do it but uh not in this case you want
to remember sorry go ahead no you want
to remember we had to invade Iraq right
we we could not do regime change in Iraq
uh from the air otherwise we would have
done it remember shock and awe we went
in with shock and awe that didn't lead
to regime change we had to go in conquer
the country and then spend months
looking for some whose name
yeah yeah I remember the night of the
Israeli bombing or the second night when
we heard all these great stories about
precise decapitations of the entire
Iranian military commander structure
that oh this was designed to ensure that
the Iranians would be so overwhelmed by
the show of force that they would
essentially submit it was the same thing
shock and awe we're going to shock and
awe them into submission and as you
noted that did that did certainly didn't
happen but let me just ask you in terms
of because one of the concerns I have is
that although this part of the war for
the moment has ended meaning there's no
more planes flying or missiles flying
over Iran and killing people and
destroying things I can't believe that
regime change is not still very much in
the minds of many many people in
Washington and and Tel Aviv president
Trump today said he didn't want regime
change he he thinks the the chaos that
it would cause would be nowhere near
worth worth the the price but you
certainly have the US and Israel funding
various factions you have the MEK other
factions that are loyal to the MSAD or
to the CIA or the MI6 that and I guess
my question to you is compared to Libya
are those significant are they those
kinds of militias and proxies capable of
of fighting a meaningful ground war to
bring about regime change if they also
have the air cover from Israel and the
US
well the fact is that they have not been
able to do it up to now uh and after
what's happened over the past 12 days
the regime has every incentive to crack
down on those uh groups and make sure
that they can't cause any trouble now
can I say with 100% certainty that there
won't be an uprising in 6 months or 12
months no I can't it's very hard to say
how this plays out over time inside of
Iran uh but the fact is that there is no
evidence now of an uprising and you also
have a regime that has powerful
incentives to make sure that that
remains uh the case for the foreseeable
future so I don't think you're going to
get regime change but Glenn then the
question pops up what happens if you do
get regime change what's the happy
ending here are you telling me that
we're going to get a new regime that is
going to say we don't want nuclear
weapons we don't want to cause Israel or
the United States any trouble in the
region and we're going to behave ourself
according to the dictates of Israel you
think that's going to happen well the
dream is to get the Sha's son who was a
puppet of the US and Israel back into
power in Iran he's going to fly from
Paris or whatever and be welcomed with
open arms by the Iranians and I think a
lot you see he's being treated almost as
like the sh like Juan Guyaido you know
the the legitimate president of of Iran
and or the monarch of Iran by multiple
western media outlets and that clearly
is the plan you know they have that
Akmed Shelby too was going to take over
Iraq and be so welcomed despite not
having lived in Iraq for 40 years that
is the the vision
that is the vision and if you believe
that I have a bridge I want to sell you
uh this is not going to happen i I would
also point out to you uh of course when
the revolution I ran took place in 1979
it was the sha who was overthrown the
sha had an ambitious uh nuclear program
and the sha was committed to acquiring
nuclear weapons and the reason is did it
make sense from Iran's point of view to
have nuclear weapons uh you know Ahood
Barack the former prime minister of
Israel and former defense minister as
well once said that he believed that
Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons
because it made so much sense just think
about that statement he of course is a
very smart man and he is correct it
makes eminently good sense for Iran to
have nuclear weapons i have said on
numerous occasions in public that if I
had been the Iranian uh uh national
security adviser they would have nuclear
weapons today i mean the lesson of the
past 12 days is that Iran was foolish
not to get nuclear weapons in my opinion
uh and the lesson now is to go out and
get nuclear weapons because if you had
nuclear weapons the Israelis and the
Americans would not attack you uh so uh
I would just say that even if you get
the sha's son uh in power in Iran I bet
a lot of money that after a short period
of time he'd be very interested in
building nuclear weapons because again
it makes good strategic sense
[Music]
thanks for watching this clip from
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hope to see you there

DOJ Sues Every Federal District Judge in Maryland, Challenging Due Process Rights
by Jacob Knutson
Democracy Docket
June 25, 2025
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-al ... e-process/

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday sued every federal district judge in Maryland to challenge a standing court order that temporarily bars the government from deporting people after they have filed a challenge.

The DOJ suing an entire bench is extremely rare — some legal experts said they have never seen such a lawsuit before. The move marks the Trump administration’s latest escalation in its attempt to undermine federal courts and erode due process protections.

The U.S. District Court of Maryland’s order, issued last month, initiated an automatic two-day stay on habeas corpus challenges in part to preserve the status quo and ensure petitioners are able to participate in proceedings and access legal counsel.

In its complaint, the DOJ characterized the order as a “particularly egregious example of judicial overreach interfering with Executive Branch prerogatives.”

The DOJ claimed the standing order has prevented federal immigration authorities from enforcing immigration law.It asked the same court it is suing to declare the order unlawful and issue an injunction blocking the judges from enforcing it.

Though the department filed the lawsuit in the District Court of Maryland, the DOJ asked all of its judges to recuse themselves from the case and that a judge from another district hear the case.

All judges with the District Court of Maryland were named as defendants because they all must approve before standing court orders are issued.

Defendants include Judge Paula Xinis, the judge presiding over Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawsuit challenging his wrongful removal from the U.S. and imprisonment in El Salvador earlier this year.

Legal scholars said that the DOJ’s lawsuit raises concerns over the protections judges have from lawsuits over their official acts, such as issuing orders in cases.

Adam Bonica, a professor of political science at Stanford, noted that the DOJ is in essence arguing that judicial review inflicts irreparable harm on the government.

The lawsuit comes just days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries they are not from with minimal notice.

SCOTUS granted the Trump administration’s emergency request for a stay on a lower court ruling that it was accused of violating earlier this year. In a scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused the court of rewarding lawlessness and undermining due process.

White House aide Stephen Miller earlier this year said the Trump administration was looking into suspending people’s right to habeas corpus challenges, which has happened only four times in U.S. history.

***************************

Trump's DOJ Sues ALL FEDERAL JUDGES IN MARYLAND For Two-Day Pause on Deportations!
Glenn Kirschner
Jun 25, 2025

The Trump administration consistently has been violating the due process rights of immigrants by trying to deport them before they can assert their constitutional rights to notice and opportunity to be heard. To stop this abusive practice, the federal court judges in Maryland instituted a two-day pause rule after someone filed a petition with the court before they could be deported.

Trump then had his Department of Justice file a lawsuit against every single federal district judge in Maryland to try to defeat the two-day pause rule.

This video discusses the new reporting and the newly filed lawsuit against all federal district judges in Maryland.



Transcript

so friends on today's episode of Donald
Trump's sprint toward autocracy
he just had his Department of Justice
sue all federal district judges in
Maryland for trying to put a two-day
pause on Trump's unconstitutional
deportations of immigrants
friends
no words
but let's try to find some and talk
about it
because justice
matters
[Music]
hey all Glen Kersner here so friends the
Trump administration has been playing
this game snatch up immigrants and
deport them before they can file
something in court asserting their
constitutional due process rights of
notice and opportunity to be heard
so to try to deal with this sort of
chronic unconstitutional conduct of
Trump and company the federal judges in
Maryland instituted a two-day pause a
two-day preliminary injunction to try to
deal with this unconstitutional game
Trump has been playing
so what did the Department of Justice
just do
this from the democracy docket headline
DOJ sues every federal district judge in
Maryland challenging due process rights
and that article begins
President Donald Trump's Department of
Justice Tuesday sued every federal
district judge in Maryland to challenge
a standing court order that temporarily
bars the government the DOJ the Trump
administration from deporting people
after they have filed a challenge the
DOJ suing an entire bench federal bench
all federal court judges in a particular
jurisdiction is extremely rare some
legal experts said they have never seen
such a lawsuit before the move marks the
Trump administration's latest escalation
in its attempt to undermine federal
courts and erode due process protections
the US District Court of Maryland's
order issued last month initiated an
automatic two-day stay on habius corpus
challenges in part to preserve the
status quo and ensure petitioners are
able to participate in proceedings and
access legal counsel
in its complaint the DOJ characterized
the order as a particularly egregious
example of judicial overreach
interfering with executive branch
prerogatives
the DOJ claimed the standing order has
prevented federal immigration
authorities from enforcing immigration
law actually it's prevented immigration
authorities
from violating the due process rights of
individuals they are snatching up my
editorial edition
it the Department of Justice asked the
same court it is suing to declare the
order unlawful and issue an injunction
blocking the judges from enforcing it
though the department filed the lawsuit
in the District Court of Maryland the
DOJ asked all of its judges to recuse
themselves from the case and that a
judge from another district hear the
case all judges with the District Court
of Maryland were named as defendants
because they all must approve before
standing court orders are issued
defendants include Judge Paul Asinis the
judge presiding over Kilmar Abrego
Garcia's lawsuit challenging his
wrongful removal from the US and
imprisonment in El Salvador earlier this
year legal scholars said that the DOJ's
lawsuit raises concerns over the
protections judges have from lawsuits
over their official acts such as issuing
orders in cases adam Bonika a professor
of political science at Stanford noted
that the DOJ is in essence arguing that
judicial review inflicts irreparable
harm on the government the Trump
administration
okay friends now perhaps against my
better judgment I'm going to read just a
few sentences of this DOJ brief in the
lawsuit it filed against all of the
federal district court judges in
Maryland but full disclosure
I'm going to do a little editorializing
along the way
in the case of the United States of
America and the United States Department
of Homeland Security plaintiffs against
all of the federal district court judges
in Maryland defendants
in recent months and years district
courts have used and abused their
equitable powers to interfere with the
prerogatives of the executive branch to
an unprecedented degree
kind of sounds more like an unhinged 2
am Trump post you know without the
misspellings and grammatical errors than
it does a legal brief in federal court
in the first 100 days of President
Trump's current term district courts
have entered more nationwide injunctions
than in the 100 years from 1900 to 2000
why because in the first 100 days of
President Trump's term he has done more
unlawful and unconstitutional than
any president in the last 100 years
probably more than all presidents
combined
this lawsuit involves yet another
regrettable example of the unlawful use
of equitable powers to restrain the
executive
specifically defendants have instituted
an avowedly automatic injunction against
the federal government issued outside
the context of any particular case or
controversy by promulgating a standing
order that requires the court clerk to
automatically enter an injunction
against removing or changing the legal
status of any alien detained in Maryland
who files a habius petition
so friends can I translate that from
legal ease to English
essentially the federal judges in
Maryland are putting in place a two-day
pause
because Donald Trump's executive branch
has been consistently violating the due
process rights of immigrants
now I'm not going to read any more of
this DOJ lawsuit right in Donald Trump's
sprint toward autocracy but this is
nothing more than an attempt to
undermine the authority of the federal
judiciary and to continue to be able to
violate the due process rights of notice
and opportunity to be heard by everyone
including including immigrants and you
know this lawsuit should just be filed
in
the circular file where it belongs
because justice
matters
friends as always please stay safe
please stay tuned and I look forward to
talking with you all again tomorrow
[Music]

Part 1 of 2

Iran FORCES Israel's Retreat, Trump LOSES IT Over Ceasefire w/ Brian Berletic
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 14 hours ago #iran #israel #trump

Donald Trump just lashed out at Israel, infuriating Netanyahu and exposing the desperation of the US as its regime change war on Iran fails. Geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic joins to break down the dangers looming now that the US has retreated to regroup for another round of war on the multipolar world led by Russia, China and Iran.



Transcript

good evening everyone good evening it's your host Danny Hiong and we have a very
special and incredible show today for all of you hit that like button as you
come on the stream we have to talk about how Iranians are taking to the streets to celebrate what they see as a victory
over USIsraeli aggression after Operation True Promise 3 fired hundreds of missiles into Israel causing major
damage to its military economy and psyche on the other side Trump is lashing out and sending mixed signals as
always following the so-called ceasefire on the one hand walking back regime change aims while on the other uh
posting renditions of a Beach Boys song that goes bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran
but what is the truth about this ceasefire the results of the 12-day war it's being dubbed in the geopolitical
fallout amid another simultaneous foreign policy blunder in dangerous
escalation from the Trump administration with me today to discuss all of this and
more is Brian Pletic from the New Atlas brian good to see you thank you so much
for having me back on and thank you everyone in your audience for tuning in
of course of course first everyone hit that like button as we get started here
Brian all right we have to talk about and uh maybe summarize this so-called
Israel Iran war the USIsraeli war of regression on Iran as I'm calling it
let's let me pull up some facts for you or some information that's coming out so here we have Minress News reporting that
Iran's missile has had destroyed 11,000 Israeli homes and damaged 30,000
published by Israel's National Emergency Authority these statistics were the
estimated cost to Israeli housing infrastructure is said to be 1.2 billion US alone and that is right now seen as a
very early estimate i want to now also pull up the uh US President Donald Trump
at what we will talk about the NATO summit but here is what he said sitting
side by side with Mark Ruta NATO's Secretary General about the so-called
Israel Iran war iran look you know they've got a country and they've got
oil and they're very smart people and they can come back israel got hit very hard especially the last couple of days
israel was hit really hard those ballistic missiles boy they took out a lot of buildings think Iran look you
know so let's talk Brian the casualty numbers of
course uh there was over 600 plus some are saying upwards to a thousand Iranians killed mainly civilians uh over
5,000 injured israel did sustain major damage many are saying the 28 killed as an undercount because Israel always
underounts everything and over 3,000 wounded uh talk about the impact of this
conflict Brian uh given that now uh what we are seeing is uh what appears to be a
temporary retreat on the part of the United States i I'm not so sure that it's a retreat i
think this is more a matter of strategy a strategy that the United States is employing to dismember a a nation that
has been long slated for regime change in the region had nothing to do with nuclear weapons i mean in a in a way it
it does because Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology serves as a limit to
the impunity the United States enjoys over the entire region so in a way it it could be but but it's not just nuclear
uh technology that the US is is uh driving US foreign policy it really is
regime change and nuclear technology is an obstacle to it this is why they would want to remove it this is why they
talked about the ballistic missiles during the you know negotiations i had pointed out for years and years i
mean I've spent years of my life warning about this coming conflict and how the US would use negotiations as cover to
launch an attack on Iran through Israel to then itself wade into the conflict
and that is exactly what happened ver verbatim from the 2009 Brooking into institutions which path to Persia paper
you just type which path to Persia PDF into your search engine of of choice and
it will pop up and you can read it it's public it's all public information now Danny you're talking about the the cost
to Israel for all intents and purposes it's irrelevant because the United States
will keep Israel propped up uh for people who had previously believed
Israel was the master and the US was the puppet i think this is definitive proof
that it's exactly the other way around the US is using Israel and fighting a war through Israel just as it's using
Ukraine and fighting a war through Ukraine in Ukraine's case the US is fighting Russia in Israel's case the US
is fighting Iran this was always long planned there was an entire chapter in the 2009 paper titled Leave it to BB and
that is exactly what the US has now just done i would say the most significant
cost however for the United States is in terms of air defense and and maybe to a
lesser degree long range precisiong guided weapons these are munitions that are made in relatively small numbers
they cannot produce them faster than they are being expended the US has faced an air defense shortage since its proxy
war on Yemen being fought through Saudi Arabia before the special military
operation began in 2022 there was an acute shortage of Patriot missiles and
now because of the the US war on Russia through Ukraine that has become even
more critical and now we just watched the the US Israel other nations in the
region using US air defense systems expend it had to had to be hundreds and
hundreds of these interceptors that will take years and years to replace and why
is this important it's important because the US is not just simply focused on Iran in the Middle East again another
another indicator that this is not about the US serving Israeli interests this is about removing Iran to further isolate
encircle and contain Russia and China that is what this is all about it's what has always been about every single
policy paper published features this as a a central pillar of US foreign policy their objectives and so if you are low
on these these munitions in your proxy war against Russia and also Iran and
your ultimate goal is China China's making has has the largest missile arsenal on planet Earth in in all of
human history how how are you going to deal with that how are you going to be in a position uh of of advantage in any
sort of conflict with China directly at least so uh that's just some opening
thoughts there's a lot more to talk about Danny yeah well I think the air defense point
is really a really good one because a lot of people have been focusing on Iran's issue with air defense systems
which is a very real problem but Iran is under sanctions and Iran uh has to uh
navigate a very difficult regional terrain and has had to essentially build
everything domestically um and of course it's made some choices to do that as well some have criticized Iran for not
getting closer to Russia asking Russia for help in this area but that ignores the fact that at the NATO summit Brian
Donald Trump said with regard to giving more aid to Ukraine he said "Oh yeah maybe we'll give them more patriot
systems but we need those too why because they're thinking exactly as you said in these terms." And I would argue
Brian that on the one hand Iran was able to survive and show that it could hit
Israel that it could even hit people uh really denigrated their symbolic gesture
toward Qatar but I know you have um an assessment that I tend to agree with which is they show that they can do it
that they can do it it wasn't about how much damage they could do but that they can and so now uh I believe that the
United States saw that Israel was going to run out of these air defenses and that's why it had to stop and so on the
one hand yes the Iranian people have a lot to celebrate because that is a victory but it also shows that the
United States it has other priorities too that uh cannot simply uh be
accomplished through an accelerated conflict with Iran your take yeah well
as as we had been saying all along Iran's primary objective was survival
and so if the governments and the nation state of Iran exist they survived and
that is a victory for Iran because ultimately this is about toppling the Iranian government and creating a failed
state where it now exists so it is a victory it is a victory for Iran um but
to but but this was a a devastating blow delivered to them we have to always keep
that in mind the the US strikes on Iran through Israel and then its own strikes
directly on Iran did real damage they killed many highranking officials
military commanders scientists it demonstrated a serious lapse in Iranian
security i have no idea why military commanders and scientists working on
critical critical programs for the Iranian nation state why these people were living in civilian homes and not on
a base uh protected by a a wide security
perimeter they were using anti-tank guid uh anti-tank guided missiles to kill
these people in their homes they just fired the missile right through the wall of these concrete apartment buildings
and just turned the entire apartment to a fireball and killed these people that
should never have been a possibility that should never have happened uh before the show we were talking about
telecom in Iran the fact that you you see Iranians with with sometimes western
mobile phones why these are these are tracking devices we know this all throughout the the war on terror you
know the war on terror the US uh waged around the planet that is how they were primarily finding and killing people by
just tracing their phones because they have this uh global network of surveillance that allows them to do so
and this is why nations like Russia and China create their own independent
telecom infrastructure i was listening to a recent interview with KJ no very
impressive interview with Jamar Thomas and he was talking about uh digital
sovereignty this this necessity to treat information space as a national security
domain so these are all utter lapses these are things that that need to be
taken care of for Iran to go forward into the future this is not over this is
not over by a long stretch we remember the United States going to war with Iraq in the 1990s and after that mission was
deemed a success the US periodically bombed uh Iraq attacked them uh pursued
regime change within Iraq using terrorist groups militants ethnic
minority groups and that is exactly what they're going what they have been doing and will continue to do in regards to
Iran so this is a this is a a constant war with these brief periods of just
open hostilities one one other thing there's just so much to talk about one other really important thing to keep in
mind is up until now there has been a sort of political limit
for Israel and for the United States in terms of directly striking Iran even
though there there were those exchanges last year that limit has now been removed so now the US andor Israel can
strike Iran at any time for any reason that that limit has been removed in the minds of Americans this is now
acceptable and so this this is what will this is what will be taking place in the
future moving forward so Iran has to accept that reality and they have to adjust to it they have prevailed and
endured for decades against US pressure in the region along their borders within
their borders um and they just have they have to continue their existence depends
on it yeah yeah and um a lot of people criticize the current Iranian president
uh uh Mr peskin for maybe being a bit too liberal a bit too um uh open to
negotiations but even in his speech Brian uh to the people of Iran he said
that Iran has to look at now what went well in its uh Operation True Promise
3/ain to defend itself from this aggression and what didn't go well so uh
that seems to be in the cards but also Brian you know we've saw Donald Trump uh
there's a lot of I think confusion maybe confusion attempted to be sown uh so to
speak uh by the current US administration because you said they've opened Pandora's box
and they indeed did in terms of striking Iran and also they opened Pandora's box in terms of Iran uh now moving
forward in its uh uh uh demonstration of what it can do and and it was still very
measured in the sense that they weren't trying they were getting ready for war with the United States that was how I
saw it they were getting ready for the US to fully enter so they weren't they were pounding Israel but they weren't
going to show everything they had because that would um essentially uh either drain them or um you know uh uh
uh show their strategy but I want to now show you Brian something here which is
this so I want your opinion on this because now US intelligence is saying
and there there through a controlled leak through CNN Fox News has also uh cooperated this despite Donald Trump and
uh JD Vance and others trying to say well we destroyed the weight no maybe we set them back but it's really really bad
what we did to Iran but US intel is saying actually they weren't destroyed at the sites and uh in that strike and
it's probably only a couple months at best uh that Iran will be delayed that as long as they're not under open
military hostilities they will likely be able to rebuild this program so Brian I'm wondering your opinion on this
because on the one on the one hand it's a big blunder on the other it could be seen as a justification to use this
excuse this pretext again and again so that's why I'm thinking about both it
could very well be true i It's most likely true that they weren't able to get underneath to fordo uh many experts
have said this is probably the case but also this opens the door for future
conflict in war what do you think Brian yeah I don't I don't think anyone should assume that the strikes were a failure
or that I mean until you have definitive proof otherwise i would I would not just
dismiss the you know the one thing the US really excels at is death and destruction so I would not underestimate
their ability to destroy these facilities you just have to think about
Iran and it looking at the rest of the world and the necessity to have facilities that are unknown to to the
United States contingency plans redundancy in their nuclear program specifically for this it was it was
obviously going to come it was obvious for years and years and years they had a
decade two decades to prepare for this so uh hopefully that is a factor danny
before you you mentioned the civilian government of Iran and a lot of people are criticizing the civilian government
of Iran for negotiating talking trying to um some people interpret it as being
friendly to the West this is these are emotional reactions uh by by the general
public and armchair commentators every nation needs to pursue diplomacy they
need to negotiate especially if you're a a victim you are a targeted nation by US aggression you need to demonstrate to
the entire world to counter the US propaganda claiming otherwise that you
do not want war that this is a war that is being forced upon you and that is what the civilian government of Iran uh
did that's what they achieved through through their negotiations they demonstrated without doubt in the minds
of everybody maybe too much so that they had no desire for war whatsoever and
this was actually something mentioned in the 2009 Brookings Institution paper the fear that the Iranians wouldn't be
goatated into the war the US wanted to provoke and that is exactly what Iran did they they refused to be provoked and
goatated into what would be perceived by the world as an act of aggression on
their part they made it abundantly clear that this was the US and Israel attacking them and them responding and
the the very fact that people are frustrated with the way they responded um you were talking about the the strike
on the US air base in Qatar this is all uh calculated escalation on on their
part to to maintain in the minds of people around the world the the reality
that this is a war against them that that they did not seek and that is being imposed on them against their will and
we talk about taking away the the political limits of striking Iran and well Iran has now removed the political
limits of striking US facilities in in nations that are hosting them so now it
it works both ways and that is what they they have achieved now uh you were
talking about well we talked about the the nuclear program we we don't know what is left of it um again KJ no was
talking recently about and and and I and many other analysts actually have been talking about which
way does Iran go now do they go toward the Libyan model which is what the US has actually called it just surrender
your nuclear program uh dismantle your ballistic missile program so that we can just finish dismembering your nation and
and create a a failed state where it used to exist or do they go the way of North Korea the North Korean model and
something that KJ know pointed out that many people might not realize is that North Korea has a significant
conventional military deterrent i remember when I was in the US Marines
people talking about the capa the the artillery capacity of North Korea alone
hundreds of thousands of rounds every hour for for days and days that was what they were capable of doing and then
their conventional missile and rocket uh arsenal was also a factor and this is
what kept the US at bay for years and years i'm looking because I I I remember back in 2009 covering the the Brooking
Institution paper regarding Iran and there was another one by the Council of Foreign Relations talking about toppling
the government of North Korea uh when the current leader's father passed away
and they saw this as a window of opportunity to enact regime change and of course we know that eventually they
they developed these nuclear weapons they do these missile tests specifically to impress upon the US their capability
of not just having a nuclear weapon a functioning nuclear weapon but a way to deliver it and this is something that is
going to take a long time for Iran to establish they need to focus on many many different aspects of deterrence uh
to to survive it's not just have a nuclear weapon and test it in the desert
if you have no means of delivering it then you're still going to be attacked it'll probably escalate and accelerate
the timeline one one last thing I want to mention is the we were talking about
how the US uh they wanted a quick win they wanted to topple uh destabilize and
topple the Iranian government quickly and cheaply they need to do it efficiently because if they get mired in
a long-term conflict as as you were saying and as as I have been saying they expend these weapons they cannot replace
President Trump talking about we need the Patriots ultimately they need them for their war with China that is coming
that is absolutely coming uh if they expend them all in a protracted conflict
with Iran then they have failed so I've talked about division of labor I I think
we're going to talk about how all All these European countries have committed to 5% of their GDP going to to uh
military spending as was laid out in Project 2025 uh years before President
Trump even ran for president that was always the plan and then again according
to Secretary of of Defense Pete Hexath back in February he told Europe "You're
going to spend 5% of your GDP on defense and we're going to hand this proxy war over to you and you're going to keep it
going while we pivot to China and we're going to stop along the way on Iran." So these these are all factors we have to
keep in mind it is all interconnected people who myopically obsess over Israel
and this conflict against Iran are missing the much bigger picture all of this fits into and if you cannot see
that big picture you will not understand the decisions being made in regards to the conflict in the Middle East
specifically yeah those are great points Brian and I
to you know add to that in and in and your comments on this uh you know people
really uh I understand uh Gaza what Israel has done with the US's of course
total support if not facilitation all across the region just in the last two years alone a little under two years is
horrific and a lot of people wanted Iran to go the distance because many saw what Iran was doing and said well maybe they
do have enough to damage Israel to the point that it is no longer able to do
these things or it could demand Israel stop that negates the fact that the
United States however could very well you said it Brian the US is a bit
outstretched the US does not have the capabilities to fight everyone at the same time it's having trouble with Russia hasn't even really got able to
get started with China at least kinetically it it is trying to build up to that point and of course uh it opened
Pandora's box with Iran during these last uh uh you know that that so-called 12-day war now if Iran escalates to the
point where Israel is in danger do we truly believe the United States is not going to drop everything is going to sit
back and let that happen no you are going to be at total war with the United States because Israel is incredibly
valuable to them so much so that even these so-called conflicts you have uh
reports that Donald Trump bered Benjamin Netanyahu about breaking uh the ceasefire in the
early hours uh with Iran but then you have Netanyahu saying Trump saying that
he's actually going to rescue Netanyahu from his own legal problems that he should be pardoned this is literally
coming out um as we speak Brian and and this is the game right this is this is
uh part of what people don't understand is uh Iran does not want to engage in an all-out
war with the United States it might be able to get some blows in it might the United States may very well sink the global economy and do all kinds of you
know and have a hard time with Iran but Iran does not want to face a total war
so in my estimation this is why it was maneuvering the way it did and was
largely successful so to me the criticisms don't take this into account what's your take well I I would say that
if the US has a choice between continuing to pursue global primacy or saving Israel they will let Israel be
annihilated it's just like Ukraine uh they will use Ukraine as long as it's useful and then when it's no longer
useful it becomes expendable this is the the story for every single proxy the US
uses around the globe yes Israel has been one of the the more successful more valuable proxies it is a long-standing
proxy a US proxy since its creation out of thin air in the Middle East between the British Empire the the remnants of
the British Empire and the burgeoning American Empire uh but at the end of the
day this is about global primacy and uh proxies are meant to be used that is why
Israel not the United States was uh catching ballistic missiles noon uh
night morning uh every day throughout the duration of this conflict i think
Iran understands this is a long-term conflict it needs to conserve its capabilities a lot of people
overestimate what nations like Iran Russia and China can actually do so they always imagine they're capable of doing
these things and it's just a a matter of political decisionmaking that they don't
do these things if they had the capability to completely neutralize Israel they would have people don't
understand that Russia's been firing thousands and thousands of missiles into into Ukraine
for the last three years and the country is still there because the US is propping it up and the US will prop up
Israel you can fire hundreds and hundreds of missiles at Israel who can lay waste to their cities but they're
they're just going to keep rebuilding it they don't have any internal constraints because they are externally propped up
by the United States which again is another little hint that they're not the ones making the decisions they are 100%
dependent on the US werether the US to pull the plug on either Ukraine or Israel they would disappear almost
overnight and so this is important for people to keep in mind he says it doesn't matter how you emotionally feel
or what you think is going on it only actually matters what is really going on and why that's the only thing that
actually matters and so going forward with self-d delusion is only going to leave you confused and frustrated about
the outcome of these events yeah and I would argue at this time I I agree with you Brian at the moment that Israel is
no longer useful um the United States would drop it however despite the lobby
and all of this however at this point in time in this moment in history Israel is
incredibly valuable because the US is having a bit of trouble maintaining its influence in the region without it
actually without Israel at this point probably wouldn't have much at all because the US has already shown through
Afghanistan Iraq on and on and onward um that every time it engages in conflict
it actually can't really stay it can you know occupy a piece of Syria it can do
bombing campaigns but eventually it does not it's not able to assert the kind of
influence it wants without this occupation state sitting in the region
with all of the US's arms and military support uh ready to uh achieve its own
aims only with the permission of the United States and that is what I believe
uh we are going to continue to see for quite some time i mean you even have Donald Trump trying to save Netanyahu now many people would say you just had
Steve Bannon say oh no this you know this is Israel's war but actually Donald
Trump wants to save Netanyahu and essentially here Donald Trump rescued Israel because he sees it as valuable
right now without Israel the United States is seeing itself as as not as
strong as it could be and should be so Brian let's talk about um Iran's
response in the aftermath of this ceasefire so I'm just going to pull up some of the developments that have
occurred since then because uh just just just one moment i just want to say one other thing what I think the the biggest
the biggest limit to Iran's uh escalation the the way they they they
uh limit it or or decide to use it is the fact that Israel has nuclear weapons
you just you want to retaliate and you want to raise the cost for the conflict you do not want to co because that's the
thing the US doesn't need to swoop in and save them because if ultimately Israel has these nuclear weapons the US
has has created Israel as a the arch villain of the region in in many cases
of the world they are designed to to do horrible things the US can always
distance itself from and this is this is one of the primary limits that that
Irvan has you don't want to force them into a corner the United States even though it has nuclear weapons it's hard
for the US to justify it oh well we have to defend our illegal military occupation of the region on the other
side of the planet but for Israel they have created it deliberately this way uh that they could justify using it and
western propaganda would be able to make that argument so this is this is all part of the calculations people sell
Iran short as if they don't have more information and a better beat on on things in the region than than they do
sitting at home and also if we just think about this you don't even really have to have a beat on it if you just
watch the situation unfolding you don't know how the United States and Israel
will respond to a legitimate crisis to the so-called existence of Israel aka
really what we're really talking about is not so much the existence of Israel but the most important military base
that the United States holds its military outpost in the region if that comes under legitimate crisis which you
know uh we don't know if that would have been possible if Iran didn't accept a
sessation of hostilities but what we do know is that should that happen
uh yes I Israel has nuclear weapons and in a crisis do we trust the United
States in not pushing that kind of button and allowing
something like that to happen they were literally talking about I I mean we had reports about inside the Trump
administration so-called war room situation they're talking about tactical nuclear weapons so let's be honest your
point is a good one Brian that Iran knows this we should also know this that
this is why Iran was moving up a kind of escalation ladder and pushing Israel and
the United States to the point and hoping to push it to the point where it would be it would have to stop and
that's what happened for now we know that uh at any point it could start again um
Brian I wanted to talk now about the uh response to
um uh to to the ceasefire uh so far so this
is how Iran has been dealing with its time under the ceasefire so here you
have Iran approving a bill in its parliament to halt cooperation with the IAEA
um this is a very political move in the sense that the IAEA was revealed to have
been working with the United States and Israel to literally help justify these
uh strikes both the Israeli strike and the US strike and then you have Iran now
moving uh possibly these are not confirmed as what's happening but Iran's
defense minister quickly went to China uh uh directly after the ceasefire for
uh I believe a defense minister's meeting of the BRICS countries I believe it is but there said that there might be
there might be talks of Iran upgrading its uh uh air force
J10C's which performed very well in the Pakistan India conflict um Iran may be
pursuing the purchase of these our friend Carl Zah reporting on this but
also it wasn't just Carl it wasn't just Carl Zah uh it was also here Iran's
defense min visits China in his first trip since the war so you know oh the Shanghai Cooperation Organization sorry
member states were meeting uh but there was also private meetings between China and Iran's uh defense ministry so
there's obviously movement here some people have been trying to spread rumors Mario on X for example that uh Iran is
moving closer to China because Russia is an unreliable partner and Iran has said so no evidence of that but Brian what do
you make of Iran's uh moves following this and how we should see this well
well first of all people that are attacking Iran's civilian government who aren't even Iranian uh all you're doing
is the work for the US for them you they want division they want people suspicious of each other and divided
that is that is how empire thrives and then people who are trying to create division or imagine division between
Iran Russia and China are doing the exact same thing this is America's dream come true that bricks just starts
fighting with itself and uh deteriorating unraveling all on its own so people should be very careful about
that don't let your emotions overwhelm you and and start pushing a narrative that is uh that is counterproductive or
even self-destructive now Danny you were talking about the IAEA there's also the non-prololiferation treaty that's
something else KJ know was talking about in his recent interview about how these these institutions and these treaties
have been weaponized they they are being weaponized to do the exact opposite of what they were intended for or in theory
were supposed to do people who are crying about Iran somehow undermining the non-prololiferation treaty are
crying about the wrong thing and pointing their finger in the wrong direction is the United States that has
forced nations all around the world to even consider nuclear weapons in the first place the US as a nuclear armed
nation the only nation in human history to use nuclear weapons against another nation against other human beings twice
uses its military power and its control over these institutions and use uses
these these treaties as leverage to dismember and destroy one nation after
another after another it is solely responsible for undermining the nuclear proliferation treaty anyone saying
otherwise is part of the problem I would say now regarding Iran going to you know
the defense minister going to China talking about buying Chinese weapons uh
I want to make a few points here very clear number one you cannot get a new type of fighter jet and then integrate
it into your armed forces except through years and years of building up the
program the infrastructure uh the the supply chains required to maintain it the technical expertise to maintain it
this means training hundreds if not thousands of people ground crews and pilots it takes years and years to do it
took Romania 10 years to transition from Soviet era warplanes to the F-16 we see
NATO attempting to achieve this in Ukraine right now by transferring F-16s to Ukraine they have not been able to
use these planes for anything they have dozens scores maybe hundreds of F-16s
that they can send Ukraine are physically not capable of integrating them and using them effectively in war
it will take them years to do if ever they're able to do it now for for Iran it can't hurt to if they have extra
resources to begin this process because down the road eventually it will make a difference but anytime in the for the
foreseeable future the near to intermediate future these weapons will be more or less useless they need to
focus on air defense they need to focus on perfecting their ballistic missile
program look how capable it was but it wasn't it wasn't as capable as it could have been they can make it better and
that would require less time and less resources than creating a whole new capability i've had people actually
argue with me that Sue35s from Russia could have turned the tide no it
couldn't have uh interesting they were getting us they're getting a small number of these planes and then again
the time required to set them up and use them effectively not just use them but effectively against Israeli pilots
hundreds of planes and well-trained experienced pilots people trying to compare Pakistan versus India to Iran
versus Israel this is not this is not equivalent Israeli pilots have infinitely better training and much more
experience than than India or Pakistan their pilots have and this is just I I
don't want I don't mean to interrupt you and they have friendly states or you could call them traitor states depending
on your perspective airspace they have Syria's airspace they have Iraq's airspace because Iraq is not in the
position obviously to defend its own airspace azarbaijan they were using Azarbaiani airspace so even if they
weren't that well trained you're talking about a dilemma here iran's air defenses
have to operate from this fact that Israel can use other airspace don't even have to fly all the way into Iranian
territory to strike into Iranian territory anyway continue no that's it's a very good point and it again it
reinforces the the reality of continuity of agenda anyone who imagined that President Trump was going to do anything
to the contrary that that has now happened don't understand what is actually happening they toppled Syria
this was a a plan that spanned from Bush Jr to Obama to Trump to Biden to now
Trump's second term in office they toppled Syria specifically to create first a springboard for extremism to
launch attacks against Iranian allies across the region if not Iran itself they also turned it into a corridor
Israel and the United States could use to attack uh Iran directly that is exactly what they did the integrated air
defense system Syria had before the government collapsed was a layer of air defense for Iran itself so so was in
many instances uh Iraq's capabilities if they weren't going to shoot down Israeli planes their radars could could detect
them and possibly warn Iran and we've we've seen strikes carried out across all of these countries to diminish all
of their capabilities specifically to create the conditions for this war so it was a an agenda that continued
seamlessly uninterrupted regardless of who was in power up until now why anyone thought that President Trump now in his
second term was going to suddenly do a 180 don't again don't understand what is
going on this was always always going to happen it has now happened and as you pointed out at the beginning of the
program even even now I still hear people trying to create 5D chess
strategies they imagine President Trump is employing to somehow fight the deep state by executing one of their most
desired wars over the last 2030 years and then President Trump posting that
video that that that video the music video celebrating an act of aggression
illegal war of aggression launched against Iran tribute to neocon wararm
mongerer Senator John McCain who is now dead um he he was the one who first sang
that at a podium in public this is who runs the United States there's no fixing that there's no fixing that there's no
force within the US that is going to fix what is wrong with the United States it is going to be incumbent upon the
multipolar world to create conditions around the world that constrain US aggression interference and abuse
exploitation and then confine it to the United States itself until there until
somehow someday forces that want a constructive role for the United States
and the world emerge yes uh a guest uh I've had him on my
show Patrick Henningson wrote this about that song and terms of the lyrics i'm
not going to play the song because I don't know what the reaction will be
from YouTube but here is uh the video in particular um you know and in this uh
Brian uh so there you hear a little bit bomb bomb but I wanted to just say that
in this video Brian he says straight up uh the you know in the rendition
uh that Ayatollah will be put in a box so that is a direct reference to killing
the leader uh the supreme leader of Iran which is um to the uh aims of the Trump
administration and they're very vocal and expressed aims is is the equivalent of regime change to them whether it
actually is or not that doesn't matter but what they are referencing is regime change i I I see in the comments people
saying that President Trump didn't always have it in for Iran he is a politician he tells you what you want to
hear when he's running for office he will tell you he's not he doesn't want any of these wars and then as soon as he's in office he's doing everything in
within his power or at least presiding over eagerly enthusiastically to advance
all of these wars so please people he's a politician he lied to you he told you what you wanted to hear to get your
support and now he's doing the exact opposite of what he promised you you owe him no loyalty you You don't owe him
anything at all you don't owe him respect people in Washington work for you you don't work for them you owe them
nothing they owe you everything and when they don't deliver when they lie to you you must hold them accountable or they
will do it on and on forever until the country literally rots out from under you which is exactly what's happening in
the United States by the way that's not a coincidence yeah no very good very good point and
good advice Brian now I want to get back to this uh question a lot of people have criticized Iran just to stay for a bit
on uh Iran's response to this and where it goes from here a lot of people have
criticized Iran uh for not getting closer to Russia for example i mean I told you about those who are saying "Ah
maybe they're going to China because Russia is unreliable according to Iran." No sources of course but I'm curious on
your thoughts and assessment on the air defense issue because many people say "Oh they need to get Russia's air
defenses because that is what is going to turn the tide here." Is there similar
issues though in terms of training and logistics iran is very adamant about it
building up its own domestic capabilities very very adamant about building up its own domestic uh and
indigenous defenses your assessment of this well again any any complex weapons
even even something as simple as an assault rifle it can take years to to fully integrate into an arms into an
armed force when I was in the military the US Marine Corps was adopting new uniforms new weapons and they were
phased in gradually over the course of of several years it does not happen overnight it's not an episode of G.I
show where the next episode next week everything they lost in the episode before it's all been replaced or Duke
gets shot out of his jet and he he parachutes down and he hops into a helicopter it does not does not work
like that in real life it is complicated takes years to train soldiers and pilots
and technicians to operate these systems effectively yes you can train someone to
to take off and land maybe within a very short period of time but to do it effectively it's not just about
operating the plane or the air defense system itself you have to operate it in a combined arms strategy in a in a
combined arms method together with all of these other military units it takes
tons and tons of training and practice to achieve any level of efficiency doing
this which is which is why uh even with with Russia when they launched their special military operation in 2022 you
could see that there were capabilities they needed that they had not yet uh created that they have been standing up
gradually throughout the the duration of this conflict and you can see how once they start coming into effect things
that they had already been working on that just wasn't ready by 2022 once it comes into effect it is extremely
effective but until then no and it takes So it takes years to do this so yes Iran
you know and again there's a lot of necessity for Iran Russia and China to
do these things quietly there's no reason for them to announce it not not to make us feel better on on social
media while while we're doing our commentary just remember how Iran was helping Russia with the drones and if
you imagine that it's not reciprocal it is it almost certainly is and China is
also helping we don't know how uh they don't want to advertise it they benefit
they benefit in no way by advertising it so just keep all of this in mind
yeah yeah i mean uh the cooperation is is definitely there we saw Vladimir
Putin say that uh Iran didn't ask for you know during the whole conversation
and discussions leading up to the strategic partnership the comprehensive strategic partnership uh Iran didn't ask
for help uh in this area and that's where a lot of people say well why not
they should have they they you know they should have been maybe going through this training uh over the years leading
up to this but again Iran was very adamant about building up its own indigenous defenses and Brian you've
brought up to me in our conversations about this as we were following furiously this uh uh USIsraeli war of
aggression uh you you know I want your uh assessment too of the nuclear question now because Iran is talking
about the NPT pulling out uh they're definitely uh they're already making
moves on the IAEA i mean let's be honest it's it's it's a it's a weapon as you said it really is actually a weapon so
no reason for them to cooperate with the very uh regime and organization that helped facilitate this act of aggression
against it but your thoughts on next steps for Iran here because many people
bring up well DPRK North Korea they have a nuclear weapon china and Russia they have nuclear weapons a lot of the acts
of aggression that the United States and Israel attempted here um are kind of
almost unfathomable given the the the nuclear deterrence your your thoughts
about um where Iran goes from here in terms of of this question i mean it's a
no-brainer and I mean that's what they need to do again I the the interview with KJ know was excellent and he was
talking about how the the NPT and the IAEA your transparency to comply to these uh
treaties or institutions that transparency is then used against you by the United States which
ultimately uh created created these and is using them to advance its own agenda
and not one of non-prololiferation not one of peace and stability not one of uh
respecting and remaining within international law but to completely shred it and trample it underfoot and so
there is no reason for Iran to remain in this in this uh treaty there's no reason
for it to comply to this institution that demonstrabably had been used to
facilitate a illegal war of aggression against Iran so why would they continue
participating in it they have demonstrated to the entire planet that they tried and the entire world has seen
what the US has done to take advantage of that compliance and so obviously if
the international institutions demanding these things of Iran are incapable of protecting it when it complies then what
reason does it have to continue complying none so again it can pick Libya and be destroyed and people can
point at and then and then it can pick North Korea and survive and people can wag their finger at Iran for wanting to
survive but these people have categorically failed to point the finger at the United States which is the the
sole sole party responsible for undermining the non-prololiferation treaty and for re
eliminating the legitimacy of institutions like the IAEA
yeah and I'm curious Brian then where you know Iran is a member of bricks i mean it's a it's we always talk about
the main uh part players in the multipolar world we know that Iran is
one of the the biggest three it is the pillar of multipolarity in West Asia not
only does it support all the resistance of course to both the United States and Israel but it is building and and and
developing in a way that is very congruent with the aims of uh bricks and
other multipolar institutions like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in building this new world that we
frequently talk about so how does it square this because um uh there are
reports that you know the brick summit is uh on its way and in a joint communic
bricks slammed strikes on is Iran's peaceful nuclear programs is illegal and demanded a WMD free zone uh a lot of
people saw this as directed toward Israel but Brics's official position is uh non-poliferation so uh how do you see
bricks in the multipolar world squaring this because this hyping of Iran's
nuclear threat that's not going away from the other side if they're saying Iran is only two to three months away
from rebuilding their civilian nuclear program then it's obvious that in the
back of their minds and the US intel and um you know Israel and and US official
they're thinking about nuclear Iran still well look look at what happened to Iraq
they had no weapons of mass destruction no no civilian or military programs of any kind whatsoever there was absolutely
nothing that they possess and the US accused them of it and used as justification for war anyway so even if
Iran were to bend over backwards comply fully dismantle their entire program surrender all their ballistic missiles
all that would do is accelerate the timeline along which the US would achieve regime change in Iran so they
have no reason to comply whether they comply or not they'll be accused of non-compliance so they might as well
just continue toward a nuclear weapon anyway and of course BRICS has to dot all their eyes and cross all their tees
if Israel is allowed to have undeclared nuclear weapons and and menace the region uh for the United States's sake
and the US of course has its nuclear weapons and acts irresponsibly worldwide
then really when you think about it that's what they're talking about they
know it's unrealistic but they have to stand on on for for on and for their principles but ultimately Iran has to do
what what it has to do just like all of these countries have to do what they have to do russia launching the special
military operation you know if you look under international law you could say well they invaded another sovereign
country but they have to do this for their own self-preservation the US overran Ukraine
uh by all intents and purposes they invaded and they politically captured the country then they trans transformed
it into a battering ram aimed at ultimately toppling Russia so they had to react even though it looks contrary
to international law but in reality it was a necessity and so the same goes for Iran and its nuclear program
yeah russia and China both have India is in bricks too they all have uh nuclear
weapons uh Russia and China they've been key in deterrence i mean let's be honest
the reason why China built nuclear weapons it wasn't for fun it was because uh they were not only were they incred
They're right next door to Japan which was bombed with a nuclear weapon uh they were threatened with nuclear weapons
after 1949 on a few occasions and of course Russia we know the Soviet Union
uh built nuclear weapons because of the arms race with the United States which was a direct uh Cuban missile crisis all
of that there was direct uh intimations by the US to use nuclear weapons whether
strategically against Soviet Union in and around its so-called sphere of influence or directly on the Soviet
Union itself so uh we know that uh nuclear weapons are about deterrence
because there's only been one state to ever use them and and so Iran now has a
very uh critical question to ask itself because on the one hand it has a policy
a very firm political policy of not pursuing nuclear weapons because of their destructive capacity against the
government's principles but on the other um it is sitting in the middle of a
region where the US and Israel don't understand anything that deterrence
people say you got to deter them you got to deter you can't deter an empire that
is uh wholly dependent on regime change to maintain and expand its uh its uh uh
dominance that you you there's no deterring that uh what you can do is you
can make the costs so high that uh they won't uh go the full distance at the
moment and and this is where uh the nuclear weapons question I think is is key for Iran yeah people have to
remember the the United States has been driving nuclear proliferation since it acquired and used nuclear weapons in in
the first place so again it goes it goes back to the argument these nations are only attempting to acquire these weapons
in the first place for their own survival against a serial offender it's not as if we just think the US is going
to do this they have repeatedly done it they have done it all along Iran's borders and they have openly said they
will do it to Iran next so of course they they they have to do what is necessary uh Danny your point about not
being able to deter the United States people have to remember the United States is killing Russians and Chinese
people right now all around the globe through pro proxy war these are nuclear
armed nations with formidable conventional military capabilities and the US is still waging war against them
nonetheless obviously the US is waging war against Russia through Ukraine the US is also killing Chinese engineers in
southwest Pakistan they use these terrorist groups to attack Chinese engineers and Pakistani
security trying to protect them they attack the infrastructure China's building jointly with Pakistan they even
attempted to kill the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan here I'm in Southeast Asia
in the Kingdom of Thailand next door is Myammar it borders China and the US is
waging a proxy war against the central government there to topple it and place a client regime into power to do exactly
to China what the US is doing to Russia through Ukraine and these terrorists and
these militants are attacking uh and burning down Chinese factories they're attacking the Belt and Road Initiative
corridor that runs through Myamar that allows China to circumvent these
maritime choke points the US is openly preparing to close down and cut off Chinese maritime shipping worldwide so
the US like you say Danny they're already at war with the entire planet they are they are unchecked aggression
they are they are absolutely at war with everyone already when you really think about it they're already killing people
in all of these countries uh and so it's just a matter of what is the rest of the world willing to do to finally stop this
and establish peace and stability it's not a coincidence