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Iran denies US claims on ballistic missile and IAEA inspection; Trump reacts | Janta Ka Reporter
Janta Ka Reporter
Jun 23, 2026

Iran has firmly rejected US claims that the Islamic Republic agreed to discuss its ballistic missile programme as part of a peace deal. Tehran also said that it has not agreed to any IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in Pakistan that ballistic missiles saved his country from turning into another Gaza. When asked to comment on the Iranian claims, Donald Trump said that the Iranians were wrong. Rifat Jawaid captures the day's big developments with his sharp commentary.



Transcript

Iran has exposed the US claims by firmly rejecting the lies on the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program.
Iranian President Masud Peshkan today said in Pakistan that there was absolutely no way Iran would discuss its
ballistic missile program. Iran has also rejected American claims on the country allowing IAEA inspection of its nuclear
sites. The deranged occupant of the White House has said that the difference between Venezuela and Iran was that the
latter was a Muslim country. The US Senate has voted to curb Trump's war powers on Iran.
And a UN Commission of Inquiry has finally said that Israeli barbarians are indeed committing genocide in Gaza by deliberately targeting children.
Protests in Albania are turning violent against the illegal sale of an environmentally protected island to Trump's daughter and son-in-law. This
would be the broad focus of my video tonight. Also in this video, another proof of the Israeli control of the UK
Parliament. The UK parliament was forced to discuss the Israeli influence on British politics, but Israeli stoes in
parliament hijacked the debate by crying anti-semitism. So please stay tuned. So it seems Israeli lab dog Trump and his
minions including JD Vance weren't telling us the truth over the outcome of the Switzerland talks. Remember how we
were told that Iran had agreed to let the IAEA inspectors inspect its nuclear facilities in exchange for access to its
frozen funds in Qatari banks. Vans had also added that even then Iran was not
going to be able to use its own money as it desired. We were also told that Iran had agreed to discuss its ballistic
missile program. But the Iranian president Masud Peskyan today made it clear that the question doesn't arise.
His argument was simple. Iranian ballistic missiles were what stopped the US and Israeli terrorist from turning the Islamic Republic into another Gaza.
He was speaking in Pakistan. Hey is the English voice over done by Kibria.
We will never surrender and there would never be. If we didn't have the missiles we built to defend ourselves, Israel and the US would have plowed Iran like they did Gaza, sparing neither old nor young.
They talk about human rights. It's a big lie. And if we couldn't defend ourselves, they certainly wouldn't have spared our country and would have
destroyed our power. Therefore, we will never ever negotiate with anyone about our defensive capabilities.
Trump was asked about the Iranian denial on the outcome of the Swiss talks. As expected, he effectively called the Iranian liars.
Iranians are saying there's no scheduled visit for the IAEA inspector. Was that part of your agreement? They're wrong.
They're wrong. They're wrong. They know they're wrong. They told us inside and we have it down 100% inspections. And if
they were right, I'd cancel the meetings right now. When will those from your view, Mr.
President, when will those inspectors actually be on the ground?
At the appropriate time. At the appropriate time. There's no rush, but they'll be on the ground at the appropriate time. Remember only a few
weeks ago this delusional fool from the White House wanted Iran's complete surrender. Today he was sharing his joy on just signing a peace deal with Iran.
As you know, we just achieved a historic peace agreement with Iran to end the conflict in the straight of Hormuz. And
by the way, yesterday 19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the straight of Hormuz, a very beautiful place.
That's the most that's the most oil in the history of the straight. It's never been any you've never seen anything like
that. It's called an oil gushia. And most importantly, we are ensuring one thing very importantly because this is why I did it. I did it for this reason.
99% for this. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. And they've agreed to that.
But remember, this wasn't easy. We had 47 years worth of pre presidents and other people, other countries, too.
We're not the only one that never did anything. They were the bully of the Middle East. And now we're leaving Iran with no navy, no air force, no
anti-aircraft, no missile capability, no nuclear program. We're leaving them without any
nuclear capacity. And they've agreed to that and we're getting along quite well.
Although, if you read the fake news, you never know. Think of it. The fake news, they have no army. They have no navy.
They have no air force. They have no anti-aircraft. We can fly over to Ren just at will. Nobody gonna do anything to us. And then I read the fake news
that they're doing quite well. They're not doing quite well. These people right there. Look at all of them. Oh, whoa.
Whoa.
That's a lot of press. That's almost as much press as Bo had at the White House last week when he knocked out his opponent in the first round.
I think you had more. Bo had more press.
But the Iran economy has been crushed and their defense industrial base has been damaged so severely that it'll take them many years to rebuild. Many, many
years. And now we're trying to work out a deal that's fair. He then told his audience at a public event that the difference between Venezuela and Iran
was that Iranians were Muslims, whatever that is supposed to mean. But this Israeli slave wanted to replicate
Venezuela and Iran country 91 million people and much different ideology. The the ideology of
the Muslims is slightly different than the ideology of the Catholics. We have the Catholics and the Muslims slightly
different but Venezuela's been great and Iran's been great. I mean you know Trump's secretary of thri Marco Rubio too rejected the Iranian claims on the
IA inspection of his nuclear facilities Iran sir yesterday on on Iran sir okay yesterday the Iranians said that they
had not agreed to inspection i.e be contradicting what vice president said.
What is your understanding of what they Well, we know what they we know what they agreed to. I don't know why they have to say the things they say.
Whatever their internal or domestic politics is, I guess they'll navigate it. But we know what they agreed to do.
And now they'll either do it or they won't. And if they do, the process moves forward. And if they don't, the president will have some decisions to make. This rabid supporter of the Gaza
genocide is in the UAE to salvage ties with key Arab states after they were let down by Trump during the Iran war. While
Trump was busy gathering all his resources to protect the settler colony, the Arab countries were left to fend for
themselves. Some experts believe that Rubio's trip may have been designed to pleate America's old Arab allies. is
America as a strategic ally that can be relied upon uh is now very much in question in the GCC. And to be fair,
yes, it is about the outcome of this war, an inconclusive outcome from an American perspective to to say the least. Uh but it also has a much longer
track record. It's Obama with the JCPOA and the nuclear agreement with Iran not having uh coordinated and consulted with
the GCC. It is the first Trump term and not coming to the defense of the GCC after Iranian drones were landing on
Saudi oil fields in andah. Uh it is also Biden and the pariah comments and not wanting to shake hands in in Ri. It's
all the above culminating with the outcome of this war. So for these Gulf countries, it needs to be all about daunt.
need to come to accommodations with Iran because they do not fully trust uh the United States. But longer term, it's not
just daunt, it's also deterrence. They have to stand up their own military capabilities to get to the very challenges and the very issues that you
asked about, which is those drones that menace their skies and these ballistic missiles that President Trump right now doesn't seem to think is much of a problem.
This is on a day a UN commission finally said what we have been saying all along that Israel is committing genocide in
Gaza. But genocide loving compromised politicians from the west and their propaganda outlets such as the BBC, Sky
News, CNN, New York Times, Fox News, Guardian and the list goes on. They would still want to hide Israeli
savagery in Gaza. That is the reason why they're quick to jump every time a guest mentions that Israel is committing
genocide in Gaza. And returning to Iran, not just Peshkan, even Iranian foreign minister sayas Saraki has said time and
again that the US simply could not be trusted. We are
interested in negotiation but only if the other side is serious.
and is in line of real negotiations.
We have no trust to Americans. This is a fact and this is the m this is the main obstacle in the way of any diplomatic effort.
I think all of you know that we have every reason not to trust Americans while they have no reason not to trust us.
In 2015, we made a nuclear deal with Americans
together with other members of the security council in Germany.
But only one year after only one year after it was concluded, the new US administration which was the
first term of Trump administration withdrew from that deal with no justification with no reason.
And then in 2025 in June again we entered into negotiation with them
after five rounds of negotiation they decided to attack us and we had 12
days of war in last year. This year again they offered negotiation
and the US delegation confirmed that yes we made significant progress today and hopefully we can conclude a deal
very soon but only 2 days after on 28th February they made an aggression together with Israelis against my people.
So the most important issue right now is the question of trust. We cannot trust Americans at all.
Meanwhile, in another massive setback, the US Senate today passed a resolution that would stop Trump from waging an
illegal war against Iran. The resolution was passed by 50 to 48 vote with four Republicans. Yes, four Republicans.
Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Marosski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and
Rand Paul of Kentucky, breaking with the party to support its adoption. John Fetman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat to vote against the resolution.
Just before the vote, Senator Chris Van Holland had made a passionate defense of this resolution. Those pushing to
abandon this agreement owe the American people an answer to a simple question. What's your what's your alternative?
What comes next? More lives lost, more money wasted with no path forward because that is the only alternative they are offering.
I want peace to prevail and I hope thisou becomes the foundation of a broader diplomatic settlement.
But I also hope, colleagues, we will learn something from this needless tragedy. The calls for military
adventurism, the promises of quick victory, the fantasies of regime change under the circumstances that were
deployed, and the endless effort to undermine diplomacy led us directly to this disaster. And we should not repeat
those mistakes. We should take a stand today and end this war. And we should finally start putting the interests of
the American people ahead of costly and unnecessary conflicts. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this war
powers resolution. Elsewhere, brave Albanians have continued to stage protest across the country against the
corrupt pro-Israeli prime minister Adi Rama. This Israeli stoogge had sold the environmentally protected Sazan island
to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
14 minutesViolent protesters also vandalized the construction site.
I will now leave you with this clip from yesterday's parliament debate. debate in the UK over the Israeli influence on British politics. MPs were forced to
debate this issue after more than 100,000 people in the UK signed an online petition. But the meltdown
amongst the Zionist was for everyone to see. Aside from five Muslim MPs, everyone, I mean everyone from the
Labor, Conservative, Liberal, Democrat, and Reform, said that questioning Israeli influence on British politics was anti-semitic.
The five Muslim MPs, including one Labor MP, Tahir Ali, fiercely put forward their argument. Here are some highlights
put together by the five pillars website. And I think it's fair to say that for millions up and down this country, the government's approach
towards Israel has defied the most basic logic, justice, and humanity, continued arm sales, amid mass
extermination, the weaponization of terrorism lord, silent disscent, the welcoming of wanted war criminals on the
steps of 10 Downing Street. With every decision this government has made, it's not only reasonable to ask questions about political influence in Britain,
it's necessary. British democracy is by the British people for the British people and accountable to the British
people. No foreign government, no matter who they are, should abuse our system for privileges at the cost of British
interests. Historically, many foreign actors try to meddle in our politics for their interests. Over the past decade,
the Israeli government has been guilty of exactly that. Guilty of meddling in our politics for the interests of what is ultimately a foreign nation.
Pro-Israeli lobby groups have paid hundreds of thousands in political donations in the UK. The evidence is countless, which I will refrain from
sharing due to time limits. If we believe in democracy, then we must demand scrutiny. If we value our sovereignty, then we must demand
accountability. If we believe in British independence, then we must ensure no foreign state, whether Israel, China, Russia, Iran or India or any other
country is permitted undue influence over our institutions. Does he believe that we need more AI weapons that Israel
has used to shoot at genitalia of children in Gaza?
Thank you. uh the use of AI across all of our uh all of our society and all applications and industries is changing rapidly. But what I would gently suggest
to him is actually that the best way to guarantee peace is to prepare for war so
that our opponents respect us. In 2024, declassified UK June 2024 revealed 13 out of the then 25 members of the Labor
cabinet received hundreds of thousands in donations from pro-Israel donors and
that some 180 Britain's 650 MPs had accepted such funding during their political careers. That's one in four
elected members. Um, if I can continue, please.
The the 255 constituents that signed this petition and the 118,000 that signed uh from across the country would
just like to hold our government and our system to account for these donations.
We rightly sanction Russia for undermining democratic institutions, warn about the threat from China and Iran to our political system. Yet when
substantial evidence of foreign influence concerns Israel, our principles of transparency, scrutiny, and accountability appear to vanish. Uh
I want to concentrate my speech on particularly Elbbit, which supplies around 85% of the Israeli military drones and land-based military equipment. as international court of
justice considers alle allegations of genocide and while the ICC has issues arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister and former defense minister Elbbit continues to profit from the
genocide in Gaza. United Nation investigators have documented the repeated use of armed quadcopter drones against Palestinian civilians. One of those systems, the Lonius drone is
manufactured by Albbit. Elbbit has a significant present in my city of Leicester through its manufacturing and technology operations. The company generates billions of dollars in alien
revenue. Annual revenue while supplying military equipment used in a conflict that is subject of allegations of genocide before the international court of justice. That's why parliamentary
scrutiny of its access to ministerial ministers is essential. It is deeply alarming that freedom of information disclosures reveal repeated meetings
between elbbit executives and the home office. Briefing papers have shown ministers were preparing to reassure the company in response to pan action protests. They also revealed that home
office officials had been in contact with the police regarding those protests while another meeting was scheduled to include a representative from the attorney general's office. It is disturbing that while ministers meet
privately with executives from a company whose weapons are alleged to have been used in acts now under scrutiny before international courts, those who want to
challenge those activities through protests increasingly face being associated with terrorism. While the suppliers of war and genocide are granted meeting with ministers, those
opposing the machinery of war risk being treated as a threat. Anti-semitism in the UK is on the rise and it has no
place in our society. The increase in attack since the appalling terror attacks of October 7th with Heaton Park
in my in the burough of Berry uh my constit very near my constituency just
one example of the shocking uh attacks and fear and prejudice angled and angered towards the Jewish community.
And this cannot be divorced from the debate and the debate of this nature. We should condemn the readiness, the ease,
the tendency to hold 300,000 British Jews collectively accountable for the actions of the Israeli government. A
standard never applied to other communities in relation to foreign governments. never get away.
On that point, can I can I ask the minister um why so many in this house and including him are conflating the
Jewish faith and Jewish people with the actions of the state of Israel because that's not what's been said within the petition and that's not what what's been
said within this house. No matter how uncomfortable it may be for some in this chamber, the state of Israel stands accused of committing genocide in Gaza.
Minister, do you agree? I do not agree with that.
That's it from me. Thank you very much for your support of this platform and our journalism. If you haven't subscribed to my channel, please do so because that's one of the many ways you
can support independent journalism. God bless you all.

Iran’s Brutal Hormuz Move BLOWS UP on Trump, Israel in PANIC | Larry Johnson
Danny Haiphong
Started streaming 34 minutes ago #iran #iranwar #trump

Former CIA Analyst Larry Johnson joins the show to discuss Iran's brutal show of strength to Trump on the Strait of Hormuz as the war reaches a breaking point amid Israeli attempts to sabotage the MoU.

https://x.com/IranObserver0/status/2070167048173310458
Iran Observer
@IranObserver0
BREAKING: A Cargo Ship has just been Hit near Oman, right after Iran Warned against using the Southern Corridor

This is the First incident in the Strait of Hormuz since the 60-day Deal
9:27 AM · Jun 25, 2026

***

https://x.com/IranObserver0/status/2070121766689575215

Iran Observer
@IranObserver0
BREAKING: Iranian Armed Forces just sent a Warning to all Ships near the Strait of Hormuz

"Transiting in the Strait of Hormuz is only possible with IRGC Navy permission and on designated routes

If any vessel attempts to transit the Strait without our permission, with AIS turned off, or outside the designated routes, it will be responsible for any consequences and any danger"

6:27 AM · Jun 25, 2026

***

https://x.com/IranObserver0/status/2070022850954600642

Iran Observer
@IranObserver0
BREAKING: The IRGC warns ships to Avoid sailing near Oman, as that Route poses a Risk

"Ships that violate the rules and do not coordinate with Iran for passage will be dealt with; the only safe route passes near Iran"

https://x.com/IranObserver0/status/2070 ... 42/photo/1

11:54 PM · Jun 24, 2026

Transcript

This is Danny Haiphong and here are the biggest news stories for today. So, uh, the IRGC has issued a devastating
warning to ships in the straight of Hormuz that are seeking to transit without its permission. Quote, and here
it is, uh, quote, uh, uh, transiting the straight of Hormuz is only possible with IRGC naval permission. And if any vessel
attempts to pass the straight without the permission of the US of the Iranian Navy, it will be responsible for any
consequences that are experienced. Now MP Galibbah has put uh Muhammad Galibbah
the head of the parliament in Iran has put down Trump's assertion that Iran is
giving everything right now to the um uh to the United States saying that the
only crop harvesting right now is the decades of mistrust with the United
tates and also uh we have learned that there Is massive panic occurring right now inside of Israel? A new Hebrew
University of Jerusalem poll finds that 92% of Israelis believe Iran has emerged the winner of the war in this deal with
the United States, indicating a level of panic inside of Israel not seen in decades. So, with me to discuss all of
this and more is Larry Johnson, former CIA analyst and current geopolitical commentator, analyst, and journalist.
Uh, Larry, good to see you again, Senor. How are you?
I am great. Everyone, make sure you hit the like button. That helps boost the show in YouTube's algorithm. So, yes, let's get into this. A ship was
reportedly struck after that warning, Larry, from the IRGC that the Iranian Navy must be sought permission from in order for any vessel to uh go through.
We have not heard any response yet specifically from Washington about this particular incident, but this is a big
blow to the uh uh reports that the United States is getting everything it wants from Iran. what is going on here
and your thoughts about these latest developments.
Well, anybody wants to know what's going on, they need to only go with respect to the straight of Hermuz. Go to
marinetra.com and it brings up a real-time map of what ships are where, what ships are going
through. And right now there's nothing going through or right over let's see right over on uh the coast uh just off
the off the the western coast of Kempsh Island. You've got a small boat that's going to Burabos.
Uh and you know three three little ships that are headed towards Bonder Boss. Um
the only ship uh it it's called the Halty. It's it's it's headed into uh the
straight and that's about it. Uh the ones that have recently come out are are all
headed to uh China or Pakistan or Singapore.
So, you know, Trump celebrating, oh boy, we got 19 million barrels of oil out on Tuesday and there all these ships that
are flowing. He let's say he was confabulating. He was
uh saying some things that just are not accurate. They are inaccurate.
And uh the the you know Iran remains in full control of the straight of Hormuz.
And the reality is there's nothing the United States can do militarily to open that straight
4 minutesat a cost that the United States is willing to pay. And let me explain what I mean by that.
Um, could the United States devote enough, you know, concentrate military assets, both the naval ships and
personnel and air assets and and and ultimately silence Iran's ability to retaliate? Yes.
But it would come at a tremendous cost.
significant loss of life, significant loss of naval assets and it would it would take it would take more than six months in my view to to try to do that.
And and that's saying even if they decided to do that to mobilize the force
necessary to conduct such an operation would take at least a year. So that's what I'm saying. there's they they they just don't can't flip a switch and all
of a sudden, oh, we're going to open it up.
So, Iran holds the trump cards here. Uh then you you've got these other problems that face uh the straight of, you know,
when you pull up that that map and you you zoom out. Oh my god. The you know the Persian Gulf is filled with with
ships that have been sitting there for four months just accumulating barnacles on the hole. And the the salinity of the
water is uh something that's going to have to be, you know, the ships will all need sort of a clean up maintenance routine before they can actually be
returned to service. So, it's not like these ships are sitting out there just ready to run over to shore and then they get a complete reload of they get filled
with oil and then they sell off and things are back to normal. No, that that's not happening. And and that's
where Trump is being misleading. Uh the other thing that Trump didn't really unveil is is the fact that why did he sign theou?
Why did he do such a quick reversal before they were dragging their feet? It is because he was finally briefed on how
dire the situation is with respect to heavy crude oil which is used refined to
produce uh aviation fuel and diesel fuel. And and and I I just learned this recently. I didn't know this before, but
a refinery, if it's going to produce, if it's got that heavy crude, it's got to make a choice. Are we going to produce
diesel or are we going to produce aviation fuel? It's not like we can do both at the same time. They can only do one at the same time.
And I'm not sure what the time lag is between once you complete a refining process to produce diesel that how easy
is it to transition and move to producing the jet fuel. I don't have the answer to that. I'm sure somebody out there does. Um, but that's there's a
there is a shortage potentially within two weeks that we run out of that heavy crude and so that there's going to be a
real crisis of diesel/avviation fuel that that there's no easy solution
to that there right now there's not enough crude flowing out of the Persian Gulf. It's been 20% cut off for 4 months
and and to compensate for that, the US has been drawing down a strategic petroleum reserve. Well, that's that
it's it's basically uh was it Jackson Brown or the Eagles running on empty?
That's what we're doing. Running on empty. Uh and what once it once it hits that level, um right, you know, right
now we're we're probably at about a hundred. We have a we have let's call it
uh 320 million barrels of oil left in the strategic petroleum reserves in the United States.
Of that though you have to keep 140 million in place to stabilize the salt caverns in which that oil is is stored
because if you take too much out because the way they remove the oil they have to pump water in. Water mixes with salt
pretty well and create salt water. Oil doesn't mix with salt. So that's why they use the store oil there. But if you
have to pump in enough water, all of a sudden that water can soften, destabilize those those caverns and they collapse. So basically you got 180
million barrels of oil. But that's not all heavy crude. It's light crude. And I think actually the ratio is is about 2/3
of it is the light crude which makes gasoline but the other is u you know let's say you got basically 40 million
barrels of heavy crude well you know when you look at the consumption on a
daily basis daily on a daily uh basis in the United States overall consumption is 20 million barrels of oil a day.
So let's just say that the diesel aviation fuel of that what is it uh 25% 50%.
That's another good question to ask the AI search engines.
But so this is this is coming to a head and so the straight of Hormuz remains
this critical node that is uh that that it represents a threat to the economy not just the United States of the world.
Let's get into Larry what Iran means in particular about Oops, sorry that's the wrong uh source here. I have to remove
10 minutesthat one and add it to the stage. Here we go. Uh let's get into this. Uh the
uh uh drop site news reported this that in this warning uh they said that a new route announced that there were
authorities that announced a new route for shipping traffic through the straight of roots without informing or coordinating with the Islamic Republic
of Iran and that it was unacceptable and completely dangerous saying and there was an Oman and UN affiliated
international maritime organization that announced a temporary shipping corridor to allow hundreds of ships and roughly 11,000 stranded seafarers to transit the
straight of Hormuz. And this comes, Larry, as you know, uh, the Trump administration is saying that the
straight of Hormuz is completely open and that ships are now moving through in record numbers. But Iran is saying that
this Yeah, that's complete [ __ ] Just go right now. Type type in maritimetra.com.
Take a look. Right. Right. Well, your thoughts about the danger that Iran is speaking of. What does Iran mean by the
danger of this uh shipping route? And I'll find that information as you talk. Well, I mean, Iran's taking control.
They're going to maintain control and and of who can sell where and when. Uh, so if the ships turn off their transponders, they forget that they
still got radar and the radar can still show up this, you know, this unknown target and Iran's going to send out its
patrol boats to figure out who who are you, what are you doing, and those patrol boats are armed in a way that they can fire a missile into the ship.
So, you know, it's not like these ships are flowing in and out. That that's what's so crazy about this.
It's It's a scanned scanned number. Yeah.
But you got to ask yourself, why are they lying about this? Right. Right. Well, here's the live map.
Uh is this the map you were speaking about?
Uh yeah, maybe not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
So, drill down. You drill down to the Persian Gulf. Keep going. Keep going. Here we go. Right.
Yeah. Keep going. Keep going.
Go back to your Go back to your left and up. Up. Here we go.
Yeah. Go back. Straight up. Okay, there it keep going. Now drill in again.
Keep going up. You go. No, you're coming back. Go drill in. Yeah. Here we go. There. This is it.
Okay. There's the straight of Hummus.
Wow. Okay. There's a lot of ships in there.
A lot of ships are in there, but they're not going through the straight. Correct.
Nope. Well, they're Yeah. And that's real time. Yep.
So, that's what I'm saying. They're lying.
And so, you got got to step back and say, "Why the And look how many are in there." Now, true.
The other thing I you know, we keep hearing that the that the Gulf is mined yet. We've seen no evidence of ships
being hit with a mind and blowing up. M uh I I'm I'm wondering if that was just a a scop as opposed to being an actual
intelligence, you know, an actual reality. I don't know.
Well, why would Iran need to mine if they have the capability of their navy has the capability of striking ships anyway? I mean, that's a lot of invest.
That's an investment. And it's also hard to demine as well. Yeah, I No, I agree because the the I mean the last time
they tried they mined the Persian Gulf to stop the movement of ships was back in 1987 during the war with Iraq and at
that time Iran had limited naval capability. They could did have ships that could go out and drop mines. And
those were mines are trying to create a threat that would keep other ships from transiting, trying to cut off funds from Iraq because remember the United States
is funding helping fund that war against Iran. And so Iran did did the quite reasonable, rational thing in trying to retaliate.
But they, you know, candidly, they don't need mines now. They've got underwater many submarines. They've got underwater
drones. They got surface drones. They got surface vessels that with uh um they
can carry uh uh you know boatto- ship missiles, they'll call it. U they've got
aviation drones. They've got uh short range cruise missiles uh you know coastal defense cruise missiles. They
got short-range ballistic missile. They got a lot of options that they can threaten and hit a particular ship. They
don't have to create a a threat that ties everybody down unless, you know, that may have been their purpose. As
long as the insurance companies, Lloyds of London in particular, perceive the possibility of the the strat
threat from mines, they're not going to let those ships move. So yeah, there's there are a number of built-in obstacles that preventing their ships from moving.
Not to mention being able can is there any oil at the terminals, any liquid natural gas at the terminals to load up
with and contra the LNG is very, you know, damaged and maybe a year or more from being repaired.
So, you know, that's another issue. What what we can say definitively is since the straits opened under thisou
more than a week ago, uh no no ships of any consequence have passed through the straits carrying oil to the United States or to Europe. It's going to Asia.
Yeah. Yeah. That I mean that's Iran has made that very clear. And yet, uh, Larry, uh, the United States, the Trump
administration continues to put out this idea that everything that Iran is going to get out of this deal is going to come
right back to the United States, whether it's oil shipments, uh, because of the relieved sanctions, the temporary relief
of oil sanctions, and of course, uh, the, uh, uh, unfrozen assets, the $12
million that reportedly has gotten back to Iran from its stolen assets in places like Qatar. Uh but Galibbah says
straight away, I mean, how are negotiations actually going with comments like these? It's obvious that the Iranian side is not trusting the
United States. Uh that there's very little love on that side. And from the US side, uh not a lot of comments. Trump
is putting out a very enthusiastic framing, but uh uh I think the general
public in the United States is very much uh not trusting the United States's
behavior in this deal despite wanting it to work out. The vast majority of people want to work out. Vast majority of people see this deal as not uh being
sustainable in the long term. What are your thoughts on this? Well, let's turn the question around.
So, if the United States doesn't like the deal, what can it do about it? Huh? That's a good question.
I mean, what can it do? Is it going to invade Iran? No, it doesn't have the ability to do that
right now. And it appears um I don't I know that the the orders
have been drawn up to start the redeployment of US air assets and military personnel that were sent forward.
Um so uh it it it's been drawn up for at least two days, two three days. It has not been signed off on yet.
uh once once it's signed off on uh then as they start to flow back the
ability of the United States to carry out attacks on Iran will diminish not increase it will be less capable of
using any kind of military force against Iran. to use military for to use effective force against Iran would
require maintaining the existing assets we have and probably boosting them. The problem is this
uh you remember we talked about uh the there's a supply you know they call it sweet crude sour crude. So it's the sour
crude out of which uh the you know out of which comes the aviation fuel the
diesel. So at the start of the war you had, you know, you had this level of diesel being produced, this level of
19 minutesaviation fuel being produced, and they were essentially meeting the demand. The war starts. What happens? The demand for aviation fuel goes up.
Why? Because the the civil airliners are still flying, but they need that fuel. You now
got all these jets conducting these combat operations that they weren't previously. Well, and now you're doing
that at a time when the supply of oil that you had was here at the start or before the 28th and now with the shutdown of the straight, it's dropped 20%.
So, you got less supply, more demand, price shoots up, but that just because the price shoot up doesn't mean that everybody's demand can be satisfied.
Now, that was uh so if the United States decides to return to war now, we're
going just as we've depleted some of our weapon systems, we've actually depleted our fuel source and and it goes back to, you know, running on empty.
So, this is United States has got limited options what it can do to uh to Iran
uh from a military standpoint. So, it's it's going to have to rely upon the diplomatic side.
Yeah. And uh the United States engaging in in diplomacy is uh is really going to
be interesting to watch given the history that it has with that.
Yeah. It's it's like watching a pig riding a bicycle.
Yeah. Yeah. That's uh that's putting it very lightly, but also I think a very
very welcome image. Uh but Larry, does does Israel have any idea? They they seem to be so rapidly
obsessed with war, greater Israel, genocide. You know, I I put this up at the beginning. you know this Hebrew
University of Jerusalem poll which also was collaborating with a think tank on this where and it wasn't only that 92%
of Israelis believe that Iran is the winner. It's also that uh the uh
Israelis now have a very low opinion of their government and of Netanyahu but
because of the fact that they are uh that they are failing in their capacity to
continue the war. This is how uh mindboggling it can be to think about what it's like inside of this colony.
So, so Larry, Israel is still attacking Lebanon. I mean, that's happened overnight. I can pull that up. It will Iran uh respond?
How does this go from here when Israel seems to be the one playing quote unquote spoiler? And now Netanyahu is
saying that Trump has agreed that uh uh Israel can stay in Lebanon and of course that means attack Lebanon. Your thoughts?
What was the attack overnight? I hadn't seen that.
Uh it seems in southern Lebanon uh Israeli defense ministers it was uh I don't I don't know if it was air it was a drone strike in southern Lebanon killing two people overnight yesterday.
Okay. Yeah. So there there still is Go ahead. Go ahead.
No, no, no. Um boom. There we go. This screen share is super annoying on StreamYard. All right.
Here we go. Yeah. This happened overnight late uh June 24th. Yeah. So that that is
that's not a scaled up attack. So uh I don't uh you know something something there will be that kind of violence and
Israel deliberately try to get away with it. But uh I don't see that altering the
23 minutesceasefire so far. the the the statistic I find fascinating is the one you showed
that 92% of the Israelis concede that hey Iran Iran won the war. You know what
is what what's sort of crazy about that is if you watch Fox News in the United States, oh my god, United States won the
war. Boy, Iran got its ass kicked. this this delusional nonsense that infests uh
Washington DC uh with while acknowledged
that Iran has won so far that doesn't mean that they're willing to accept any kind of status quo with Iran. They still
remain convinced or committed to wanting to destroy Iran and eliminate the Palestinians. So that's you know there's
I think an too too much discussion about BB Netany what does BB Netanyahu think what does BB Netanyahu's future what's
going to happen to BB Netanyahu how you know BB Netanyahu doesn't matter one wit
BB Netanyahu's only utility at this point is up up until recently he was generally seen as a positive asset for
dealing with Americans making Americans feel comfortable with Israel uh once he's gone, you know, the
corruption allegations surrounding him are substantial. Once he's gone, that's not going to change Israel's policy as
far as its views towards the Palestinians or the Iranians. In fact, that may become more extreme.
But what changes is how willing is the United States going to be to continue to
fund this effort. And we saw even with a recent article by uh Sai Hirs that this divorce between Israel and the United
tates is real. Uh Alistister Crook's wife Oling put out a great summary today or late yesterday about what the Hebrew
press is saying about this divorce between the United States and Israel. So Israel is now rapidly coming into
position where it no longer has the 100% guarantee that it can rely upon the United States to cover its ass.
And so that is ultimately going to force it to change its calculation.
H yeah. Well, in the meantime, as all of this catches up uh to Israel there, you
know, there are reports. It seems like, you know, Israel and thei Israel and the Trump administration, I would say the Israeli regime, the Trump regime, they
play a very similar kind of game, but uh uh maybe it looks a little different. Uh
uh they both like to spin uh and spin and spin what is going on. And right now
what uh the Israeli media, some Israeli media is saying is that uh Netanyahu has
reportedly convinced Trump not that Israel should not withdraw from southern
Lebanon despite Iran's uh protestations against this. Uh uh but there's also been reports that uh there are the Trump
administration has like a list of restrictions over what Israel should and should not be doing. um those haven't come out publicly, but it does seem like
uh because there's a deep need, a deep crisis to keep theou alive, uh uh
Israel's behavior is an impediment to that, no doubt. Your thoughts?
Yeah. Well, um the apparently the conversation between
uh Netanyahu and Trump was very uh very uh pointed and uh you know I think uh
even Sai Hurst described it as a divorce.
So, uh, you know, what what what we're looking at here is, um, a fundamental change in the relationship between the
United States and Israel. And look, we're seeing some of the political indications. Look at all the money Apex spent to get rid of Thomas Massie. So,
they got rid of one congressman who was going to vote against him. And yet, three members of the Congress that traditionally voted for Apac and with
Israel, they got they got defeated on Tuesday. in New York City. So, you know,
how how is that worked out? You spend all that money to to defeat one guy and you lose three more seats. That that's
going in reverse, not going in the right direction.
Uh and and I think there is a growing sentiment that the United States is too beholdened uh to Israel. And I mean,
let's let's face it, the the the number just we're not talking Zionist. Let's talk Jewish Americans in general who
ident you know and and the majority of Jewish Americans don't identify as Zionists. They're only 10 million and
you know they by and large vote on the Democrat side of the ledger anyway. So uh from the standpoint of the you got to
ask why the Republicans are so beholden to such a tiny tiny sliver of the of the uh electorate.
And then within the Zionist element, the estimates, you know, someone I had someone ask Yak
Yakov Rapkin, uh, you know, his estimate is about 3 million out of the 10 million.
So, you know, it's a it's an inconsequential amount, but yet we we
end up conditioning and uh uh, you know, using it as a litmus litmus test for
people. I mean, you had John Federman the other night was on Sean Hannity and and he was saying that if you don't support Israel, you're unAmerican.
Oh, he's a nasty Zionist.
Can you imagine saying if you don't support Madagascar, you're you're an anti- Madagascarite. If you you know to
pick any country in the world where you'd require a loyalty oath from Americans to be the only way you can be a true American is you got to support this country overseas. give me a break.
Sorry that you know and Americans like me and others are getting fed up with this.
You know, you know, Israel should mind its own damn business, stay in its own lane. That the United States is not beholdened to surrender, submit, bow
before Israel at all. That is a growing sentiment among uh a growing number of American voters. That has the Israelis
scared to death. Yeah. And it's across and it's across the political spectrum too. Those
farthest left uh and and even people who consider themselves on the right. It's it's becoming a universal
issue for Israel. I think that's what's fueling Israel's panic and desperation too is uh they're seeing these poll numbers. Uh people people are supporting
this deal in the United States. I'll post some of I'll post some of that up.
But uh you know I I'll also play what you're talking about here. here is John Federman. I mean, this guy is a nasty
Zionist. He's someone, you know, he's one of these guys that uh along with, you know, other others in the Democratic
party uh former Biden officials who have said, "Yeah, we would go to war with Iran anyway." I mean, I think this shows
the bipartisan nature of the uh uh disease of Zionism in the United States government.
All right, let me ask this. Why? Why the deep hatred for Israel? Why?
Yeah, because because I mean if if you you have such contempt for Israel, I mean, of course, you're also anti-American
and you're anti-western civilian civilization and you're, you know, seem anti- capitalism and the American way of
life. I mean, now, you know, they're all socialists, of course. Now, now there's communists. uh and now Marxist and now
they're proud of this and know of course we have P Hustle in Maine you know that's another one he's a self-avowed you know communist too now that's not
even look down I mean this is what passes for political leadership Larry you know I say keep going guy you're going to turn the whole
damn United States socialist if you keep talking like this because you look really bad here you look like a a raving
uh really illiterate and absolutely imbecilic.
Well, yeah. Yeah. Just take what he's saying and substitute the name of any other country and you'd be saying that that's [ __ ] outrageous. No.
Hello. That's the reality. It's outrageous with especially with respect to uh Israel. And I heard one other
commentator on a it was part of a panel where insisted that United States had no role in the creation of Israel.
Excuse me? Are you that ignorant of history? Go to the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, where I grew up.
And in fact, my wife and I for uh 10 months actually lived across the street
from the Truman Library. And they have an entire room devoted to the creation of Israel and and the role that Harry
Truman's uh you know former business partner uh who was Jewish played in persuading Truman to get the United
States and and to help rally other countries to to get on behind the UN resolution that created the state of
Israel. I mean the United States absolutely played a critical role in that. uh you know whether you know people want to pretend that didn't
happen but that's just you know that's a lie right oh I mean the United States during that time period uh during World War II
I mean there was a concerted policy to turn people away coming into the United States who might have been identified as
Jewish and say go to Israel you know that was go there go settle there because there was obviously something
brewing uh which we all know culminated in the Nagba uh not a few years later.
So, uh it's absolutely ridiculous to think that the United States, given its growing superpower position as it was
trying to get to and was not going to try to take advantage of something that was uh uh brewing in the wind, but uh
burning in the wind, I should say. Uh now, uh Larry, I have a question about something that's been bothering me about
uh you know, I feel like there's a propaganda war on many fronts. There's uh of course those uh in who are on the Trump side, MAGA, whatever if we want to
call it that, you know, people who are trying to push Iran fully defeated. They are giving everything we want. Uh then
there are others who uh oppose the US war and Israeli war on Iran but are now very suspicious of Iran's uh engagement
in these negotiations and have brought up a point about Gaza. Uh and the uh
first point of theou talking about an end to war on all fronts but not explicitly talking about Gaza. Now recently uh foreign minister of Iran
Arachi said to Hamas that Iran is going to raise Gaza in these talks. And yet we
are hearing so many uh talk about I see this all over social media among people who even you know maybe have traveled to
Iran have uh uh really championed peace uh being very critical about this process. What do you make of these this
engagement this kind of debate around the the veracity and the validity legitimacy of Iran's participation theou
and whether they're making the right decision? I don't believe it's the right approach to take but I'm curious your thoughts about it.
Well, is is Iran getting bombed on a daily basis? No. Nope.
That right there. Um, has Iran been required to give up its sovereignty to
surrender its control over the straight of Hormuz? No.
Uh, has Iran demand that the ter territory of Lebanon be
respected, both the territorial integrity and its sovereignty be respected? Has that been rejected?
No. Yeah.
No, it has not been. So, okay. Again, explain to me what the problem is, why this is bad for Iran. I don't get it.
I have no idea. I mean, I it seems to me that there's such a deep nihilism. All right. And I get the point of wanting to
see a country as uh uh resilient and as steadfast as Iran has been, wanting to
keep pushing the envelope. However, this I don't believe is the right approach because this is a long I mean
this this is not going to be something that is resolved I first of all there are very few wars that are resolved in a matter of less than a year. Uh but
there's uh I don't think uh this is something that's going to uh stay in the status quo forever and ever and ever.
The United States, Israel, they are who they are and Iran is who it is. And so I'm like maybe a little patience. Maybe
Iran is doing what it feels like it needs to do and what it might be beneficial toward it. It it seems like
they're gaining a lot of benefits from for themselves and that is a big gain for everybody. Yeah.
Palestinians, Leb Lebanon, etc. But back to you. Well, I again um how long uh you
know, Israel first invaded um Lebanon back in 1982.
And so that's 44 years ago.
Now, for the first time in 44 years, we have the United States signing a document
that acknowledges the right of Iran to ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.
Unheard of before. Absolutely unheard of before. So, yeah, that's why these these critics I I just turn to say, what is it
exactly that you want? you know what what's the problem here? Uh do you know
um you want to continue having Iranians killed and and American attacks
or the that now you've got the United You've got the United States because of its economic peril because of what's
coming down the pike that it has to negotiate doesn't like it the terms that Donald Trump he keeps trying to he
refuses to acknowledge what the real terms of the agreement are and he keeps keeps pretending that it's something
else. But the reality is what the reality is.
And you know, the Iranians are letting Trump just step back and play his games, make his make his ridiculous claims that
he's got this and that concession from Iran, which he doesn't.
And then, you know, uh in the course in the course of all this, uh Iran's can,
you know, making progress. It's not just not just Iran, you know, look at what is look at what is happening uh with the
new security architecture being erected in the Persian Gulf with Pakistan playing a leading role. But they now you
know on Sunday you last Sunday you had the foreign ministers of Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan meet. the
Iranians weren't there because they were in the Iranian foreign minister was up in Switzerland meeting with Marco with JD Vance uh indirectly.
So uh you you know you got you got tremendous movement right now of creating this security architecture that
we've talked about to to the point that um it is uh it's becoming real. It's not
just a it's not just some far off flaky idea. It there is actual movement forward on that.
Yeah. Well, uh you know maybe we can talk more about about this and what are what is the impact of that then on the
on the rest of the region? You have even uh mainstream publications talking about the United States's even just its
presence in the region as being completely and wholly unproductive, counterproductive. Here is foreign
policy magazine uh full of neocons. But this particular uh uh author who at the Kato Institute which is full of neocons
Washington's Middle East military presence is uniquely counterproductive citing that it's actually a relatively new concept over the last few decades
for the US to station as many troops and have as many bases as it does and that none of this actually provided not only
any security but even meeting uh US objectives and interests not just uh so-called national security but even the
uh very notion that these bases are uh increasing and expanding US influence
41 minutesand dominance in the region. So you have mainstream neocon light or straight up neocons talking
like this. It seems like a pretty big shift and uh indicates that uh uh they're aware that the security
architecture could very well be real in the future. Oh, no. Look, the security architecture is is fundamentally
changing, you know. So, first, like with the Saudis, they've told the United States in no uncertain terms, we're not
doing a damn thing with the Abraham Accord until the Palestinians, Israel's out of Gaza, out of the West Bank, and
the Palestinians have a state. Until then, don't waste your time with us. um uh Qatar and the Saudis according to our
our P Pakistani source that uh uh Pepe and I have been in touch with
um is saying that they've got assurances or they have informed the Pakistanis
that we're kicking the United States out. Qatar puts a 9 to 10 month window on it to close down aloud air force base
and get the United States out of the region. So that, you know, that's real.
Uh these various bases that were attacked and in large measure destroyed during the course of the war, uh they're
not going to be rebuilt and they're certainly not going to be restaffed with a with a thousand of personnel. So, you
know, we're you're really you're really looking at here uh a significant change
uh in the US role in in in the Middle East um or West Asia, however you want
to call it. the uh the vision of China
and Russia in which the Arab, Turkish, Persian
uh national national nationalities who are all under a banner of Islam
come together to be perform their own security function that you know will will further terrify
Israel because Israel can no longer use this divide and conquer strategy.
They're going to face a united front that is frankly much more powerful militarily than than Israel is. Uh when
you with the combined armies of Turkey, Egypt, and Iran and Iran's uh you know
superior ballistic missile capability, it it's something that Israel is not prepared to confront. So yeah, we're
this this whole war of choice initiated by the Israelis and Donald Trump's acquiescence, it's blowing up on them.
It is it it's achieving the exact opposite outcomes that they anticipated.
Yeah. And they don't even the Trump administration does not even sound convincing anymore. Uh I mean never they never did. What am I saying anymore? But
even the level of confidence in their position, I I feel like whenever you see Marco Rubio now being paraded about, and
this is somewhat parallel with the uh way the United States has handled the Ukraine conflict, I feel like when Marco
Rubio gets out in front, it means that uh uh there is a loss of confidence in
being able to achieve anything other than uh uh weak words. here is uh you
know Marco Rubio was in Bahrain recently and I'm sure you're aware of the uh Gulf statement that was made uh about the
need for a free flow of traffic in the street of Hormuz and a demand for it.
Here was uh what Marco Rubio said at in Bahrain and then we're going to have chaos. So that is unacceptable. You can
call it a toll, you can call it a fee, whatever you want to call it. It's a game of semantics. The reality of it is that no country on earth has a right to
charge for the use of international waterways and that will never be an acceptable condition of any deal. The president's been fundamentally clear about that.
So uh yet Trump has signed theou and fees are being charged in the trade for moves but you're
well it's not it's not an international waterway.
Yeah it is it is Iranian territorial waters.
Halfway out is 12 miles out. That's Iranian territorial waters under international law. Period. They don't they say except for this.
You know the uh England and France they could each they could insist that anybody want to travel the English
channel could be charged. England England would control traffic halfway through halfway out and France could control the other half. they haven't
done it. But you know this this notion that the the one the irony of this is
46 minutesthe one piece of possible international law that might apply to this is a law
the United States has never signed because we don't recognize it as legitimate. So it's like Marco shut up.
Okay just shut up. The reality is Iran is going to charge toll. The United
States may not like it. Okay. What are you going to do about it? How are you going to change that reality? And the qu the answer is you're not.
Yeah. and no there will be few others other than the United States who will and maybe Gulf countries that are under their vaselage that will protest this.
uh Abasarachi has already said that they are pitching the institutional framework for a fee in the state of Hormuz to
cover the services needed to manage it uh everywhere including to China and I don't see any protest coming from China
given how firm China has been on Iran's sovereignty and the sovereignty uh of all countries in the region in the world
to be able to uh defend themselves if needed and to protect uh their interest if needed. It It doesn't uh hinder China
and it doesn't hinder really international trade whatsoever unless the United States tries to disrupt it, however foolhardy that may be.
Yeah. Well, again, we get back to the question of what can the United States actually do to change the situation?
What is its leverage? Um and you know right now uh the United States has been forced to vacate several of the bases
that have been staples in the past and without without the US presence there.
uh the the their prospects for further military action is extremely limited
and last I you know the right now orders have been drawn up to start the
withdrawal of US air and ground assets and naval assets from the region.
Um to my knowledge that order has not yet been signed. once it's signed and these planes start moving out. I mean,
there was a report yesterday, I haven't confirmed it independently, but that 28 KC135s had left departed Bengurian airport.
Now, why why might that be? Well, that that would be a first step. So, um, you would you would take these these
aircraft, get them away from Benguri and fly them to say, uh, the air base in in Cyprus or fly them to an air base in
Italy, fly them to an air base, you know, Spain, Portugal, France, England
because they're they'll they'll they'll refuel or up in Germany and then as these F35s try to fly home, you know,
they'll fly they need to they'll fly about 450 mi before they need to be refueled. So, they can fly another 450
mi. Um, and then the question becomes, how many hours is is a pilot going to be
allowed to fly before they have to have downtime?
you know, they uh since it's not a combat situation, they're not they may, you know, put a pilot pilot on eight
hour limit or uh you know uh a 12-hour limit. I'm not I'm not actually sure what that is,
but uh so it it'll take a while to start fing these aircraft back to the United States. Well, and they're in the process of moving back to the United States.
They're not available for use in combat operations against Iran, which further reduces what Israel could count on or threaten to do.
Yeah. Yeah. And uh a lot has been made of greater Israel, Larry, but uh I I see this moment as actually being a big
crisis for this dream project of the Lood party and uh the rest of the fanatics inside of Israel who want to
see this kind of from uh the Euphrates to wherever you know across the Mediterranean. this idea that they are
going to uh uh expand in this way it does not seem like that is doing
anything that concept is anywhere but in collapse. Your thoughts?
Well, they're the ones insisting from the river to the sea. Yeah.
I mean that's and Israel's just projecting they're they don't want the the Palestinians to claim that and uh
because that's an that's an Israeli right. Don't you know it says so in the says so in the Torah.
It's absolutely absolutely ridiculous. I mean like this is what always gets me.
If Israel and the United States, but let's just say Israel right now because Israel is the one vocally uh espousing
the greater Israel dream. Uh if they wanted it so badly, why don't they just do it? I mean, they've had to commit
genocide in Gaza to what they say they control 70% of Gaza. I don't even know what that means honestly because that to
me that means very little if Israel can't actually establish any a lot of colonial situations on you're a student
of history Larry when you're a colonizer you have to have administrative control you have to administer an actual
colonial government you have to dictate and I don't see that in Gaza I don't see that what does 70% of control mean that
you have uh uh troops running around waiting to get inched. I don't I don't understand it, but that's what they say.
52 minutesAnd then Hezbollah, they can't defeat Hezbollah. Uh they're they got their butts kicked in so many battles even just of late. I I don't see this greater
Israel dream as being succi is just al-Qaeda. But once that project
is uh collapsing, I don't see Syrians saying, "Okay, this is exactly what we want." I feel like it's a lot of borrowed time. But I maybe that's my
rosy outlook. What's your uh thoughts on the regional situation when it comes to greater Israel?
Yeah. Well, the I the greater Israel project is now dead. Uh it's dying. uh
it is not is not sustainable and the uh the growing sort of opposition to it
that you know it it's running up against uh the the milit the limit what I call the limits of Israel's military power.
53 minutesUm the um Israel does not have a large standing army. It's a reserve army and
uh you know even with the size of reserve army they have they could effectively fight on one front. They can't fight multiple fronts and that's
that's exactly what they're trying to do uh to engage both in um Gaza, West Bank,
Syria and now Lebanon. And Lebanon in particular is partic part particularly problematic for them because uh
Hezbollah despite you know past defense to uh weaken and defeat Hezbollah it's failed and Hezbollah's use of drones has
proved out to be a very very effective uh countermeasure to the Israeli attacks.
And uh we have one question from the audience uh Larry that I am actually not familiar with this but uh a member of the show as well gave a super chat.
54 minutesThanks so much Tropes. Does Larry know why three giant plumes of smoke have been burning for over three months in the UAE visible from satellites
intentional or out of control? Are you any aware of any of this Larry?
No I'm not. U my my guess it would be oil fires that they've been unable to put out. That's the only thing I could
imagine that would create that kind of plume and and continue to burn. Uh you know the that was one of the other
calculations of the UAE that they thought that because of Fujara on the south that they would be able to
continue to export oil and they could not suffer what the other Gulf states were. And Iran Iran fixed that pretty
quick. They took that out. And so the the UAE is now really hurting for cash flow.
Maybe also to uh Uni with this question.
What do you know about that giant explosion just a couple of days ago at Ross Leafan? What happened there? And is there is there a you said earlier in the
show that it's going to take at least a year, two pl maybe two more or more years for Qatari guests to recover? Does
this hurt it even more this uh you know catastrophic explosion? But what's your thought?
Well, I again I don't know specifically what blew up and what was damaged. So it would just be speculation, but I you
know it's not unreasonable to assume that that's that that was not a viewed as a positive. Um and was it just a an
accident? Oh maybe. uh and you could argue that it was an accident was caused because of the structural instability of
the system based on previous attacks that that may have helped precipitate and expand make this worse. But it's it
is just a reminder that even though if if you get oil oil flowing out of the Persian Gulf,
the fact that that the Uataris aren't pumping out LNG and with LNG comes
helium. So those are two critical elements that are, you know, the world's going to be short of for for some time.
You know, at least I'd say at least six months if not a year.
And I'd be remiss not to cover what was absolutely horrific uh last night, the two earthquakes in Venezuela, magnitude
of over seven. Now, the reported numbers, these are still early in terms of the impact is devastating and tragic,
but under the uh assumptions that were made by the US Geological Survey saying that it would run into tens of thousands, if
not a 100,000 plus. right now 188 dead, 1500 injured in uh two seven magnitude
earthquakes that occurred within s of each other.
Uh the first thought I had is uh one, you know, Venezuela did build up quite impressive infrastructure. If they keep
those numbers below the what was assumed, then that means Venezuela has been very resilient under sanctions. But also the level of damage if it if it
continues to add up into these catastrophic numbers, the level of uh impact that sanctions do have that are still technically despite the Trump
administration and Trump's uh they're best friends of ours. We are so much you know uh have this great relationship
now. Those sanctions are not really lifted especially um those uh you know universal sanctions that go beyond oil.
your uh your thoughts on Yeah, it hasn't it hasn't really changed anything in terms of you know it hasn't
made the world more peaceful more more wealthy you know this ch you know getting rid of Maduro is just taking
away uh you know someone that Trump considered to be an obnoxious presence
58 minutesand you know it is it going to expose will the court end up exposing potential corrupt corruption from US actors. Yeah, I think so. Possibly.
By the way, I saw one of your one of your commenters was asking, "What kind of cigars do I smoke?" What kind of cigar?
Alec Alec Bradley Superstition. It's a cigar made in Honduras.
Oh, okay. All right. Very cool. It's a That's a whole other world to me. I've never smoked a cigar, but uh you always
look like uh you're victorious uh when you're smoking one on the program.
I I wait I waited until I was 35 to develop uh uh the vice. That's all right. That's all right.
Well, uh in any event, Larry, any final thoughts on the current situation globally before we head out and I uh do some announcements?
Well, the biggest one is what's going to take place in Europe. Uh we're we are headed towards um there there will be
the war is currently the war that's currently confined to Ukraine is going to expand beyond the borders. It will
involve Europe and uh the you know Germany, UK, France, uh Poland, Romania,
they're like they're they're like Latia, Lithuania, they're likely to become engaged in this war and they're going to suffer significant damage. Uh the
Russians are the Russians are prepared for this. They've warned them. Uh and those warnings have been ignored. So uh
I I think we're going to actually see the expansion of the war in Europe before we see it in uh Iran or the G the Persian Gulf.
Yeah. Well, Europe, uh, especially their NATO leader, uh, RTA, they are bragging
about being involved in all of the wars and how absolutely loyal they've been, uh, to these, uh, what have been losing
causes. So, no surprise there. But, yeah, it is definitely going the war in Ukraine is not over and it's uh, but
it's and but it's not going in right favor. That's for sure. Um, which is why they need uh drone theater theatrics and uh optics to to cover up that reality.
But we are here, that's why we're here to uh uh uncover and uh lift the veil of this war propaganda. Everybody, thanks
so much for joining today. I want to make sure you know, and I don't know. I hope it's I hope it's in there, but I'm going to I'm going to get it in there.
Make sure uh that you follow Larry Johnson's blog at sonar21.
I am going to put it in there if it isn't in there. Nope, for some reason it wasn't, but now it is. So, in the video description is sonar21.com and oh, transition protocol, right?
Also, yeah, also transition protocol.
That's Pepe, the Pepe Larry show with hosted by Zulfikar Ali. I feel like he's been in touch with me.
I should probably be in touch with him to uh, you know, if he ever wants to coordinate anything. All right. All right. Um, that is also in the video
description below. So, do subscribe there. support that show. Hit the like button before you go. Uh that helps boost the show on YouTube's algorithm.
And underneath all of Larry's resources are where you can support this show, Patreon, Subsec, and much more. All right, I'll be back tomorrow with our mutual friend Patrick Henningson, same
time, 2 pm Eastern time, June 26. See you then. Bye-bye.

EX-CIA & Pepe Escobar EXPOSES: How Did Pakistan’s Hidden Tech Stop Kill Chain in Iran?
by Pepe Escobar, Larry Johnson, ZulfiqarAli
Transition Protocol
Jun 24, 2026 #Iran #Pakistan #China

Pakistan — with China behind the scenes — has emerged as the broker that ended the US–Israel war on Iran, and in this special edition Pepe Escobar and Larry Johnson join ZulfiqarAli to explain what it means for the Strait of Hormuz, the petrodollar, and the new security order taking shape from Islamabad to Riyadh. The guests lay out how Iranian oil is now moving to China settled in yuan through CIPS, why Iran's president made Islamabad his first stop abroad, and what to watch when Pakistan's leadership meets MBS in Riyadh this week.

The conversation also covers the guests' most sensitive claim: that a Pakistani-Chinese technological breakthrough helped Iran halt the assassination campaign against its leadership after the March 17 killing ofAli Larijani. We flag clearly where claims are sourcebased or developing versus publicly confirmed.

Guests: Pepe Escobar (veteran geopolitical correspondent) and Larry Johnson (former CIA/State counterterrorism). Transition Protocol delivers serious, source-drivengeopolitical analysis of the multipolar shift.



Transcript

Pakistan led uh Iran to finally find a way to counteract
the artificial intelligence generated killing of their top leadership.
I'm sure many of you will draw your own conclusions just based on this sentence.
Today is June 24 and we have a special edition of transition protocol uh because we have something very
significant to talk about and to talk about the very significant events uh of
the last few months that have resulted in s in very significant developments in
West Asia. I have my very good friends Dary Johnson and Pepe Escobar.
Please if you like what we are doing to support us, kindly subscribe. It goes a long way to make this possible. Now to Larry Johnson.
Yeah, this I I I I have to do all this tremendous burden of work having to talk to Pepe. you know, the times the times
that Pepe and I have been chasing each other around because we just like to sit down and talk and [laughter] be able to share to share with you what's going on.
Uh, you know, if you would have if you would have put asked us two months ago, could you believe that Pakistan would be
playing the leading role in brokering an end to the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran?
Going, oh, what? Okay, we're going to have to do a drug test now to see what if you have any illegal substances in your body for saying such a thing. But
in fact that's what it's turned out to be that uh Pakistan working behind the scenes with the full encouragement and
support of China and you know that's it is that entire relationship that I think is not fully understood or appreciated
2 minutesin the west um have have made tremendous inroads not just on the diplomatic front
but also on the military front also on the intelligence front you know So, for example, uh it was just reported by CNN
yesterday about the the jellyfish drones that the pilot the the the number two guy who was the backseater in the F-15
that was shot down uh in Iran south of Ishvahan about two months ago that he
reported seeing uh the these drones that were moving in coordination and and and and played a role, I guess, in downing
the aircraft. Well, what country in the world is known for doing that? Oh, that would be called China. Anybody that's
ever watched any of their, you know, New Year celebrations? They both the Western New Year and Chinese New Year, they have
this incredible display of drones all moving in concert and and operating.
Over a thousand drones moving in in sync.
Yeah. So, they they've perfected that technology. They brought that to the battlefield. they've brought to the battlefield for Iran uh missiles that
have been used against US sensitive US installations destroying those. So, China is playing a role behind the
scenes and and the front people for this are uh the government of Pakistan, Prime Minister Sharif, but most important
General Munir and those of you listening, you know, we recognize there are issues that some people recognize
that Munir and Immad Kh, you know, it is what it is and and so we're not here to meddle into the internal affairs of
Pakistan. Pepe and I both believe it's just like with a with a couple that's getting on in a bad marriage. You don't
get in the middle of that. You let them sort it out. It's not for us to sort out. We're just reporting what's going on. But what we seeing right now and it
4 minuteswas demonstrated last I thought last Sunday was so important on two fronts.
one, the brokering of the meeting between the United States and Iran in which actual progress was made despite
the offensive obscene remarks and threats from Donald Trump. But at the same time meeting in Cairo again brought together by the government of Pakistan.
this time with the Pakistani foreign minister, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Turkey and and and Saudi Arabia
that they are all coming together to recognize this new security architecture
that Vladimir Putin talked to uh foreign minister Arachi of of Iran about two months ago
and then a week later Arachi's in China in in Beijing talking with Wangi the foreign minister and he says a new
security architecture. So clearly this is an extension of what Russia and China have been working behind the scenes.
Pakistan turns out to be the frontman for this and they what we're witnessing right now, we can't emphasize this
enough. We are witnessing a historic change in the world order. You may not fully appreciate what's taking place,
but it is significant and it's happening in front of our eyes.
Absolutely, Larry. and uh the connection with what Russia and China
were discussing and had been planning for the whole of Eurasia. Now we are watching it happening in real time in
this West Asia South Asia connection which is Pakistan as one of one of the key South Asian uh nations
providing the possible security umbrella and the new security architecture for
most of West Asia at least most of the GCC. The UAE is out of the picture at the moment because from the beginning
they bat on the wrong horse. So we have now a h a in sync these four initial
Sunni nations which first met in Islamabad. There was right at the beginning before even the
possibility of a meeting in Islamabad where we had Galibbaf on one side and Jade defense on the other side. This was
the first meeting where we had this quartet.
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt. The next day, Pakistan's foreign
minister, he boarded a plane to Beijing to explain what happened to Wii and the Chinese, of course, they started
coordinating in the background. Okay guys, you have to dig a little deeper.
[laughter]
That's not enough. And the product of all that was the first Islamabad meeting which as we all know was derailed at the
end. But that uh opened the path for the possibility of a next meeting. It would be in in Geneva in the end turned out to
be Burgento this past weekend and everything mediated by Pakistan with
help from Qatar. They were work working on two different fronts. Pakistan was working on the political military front
and Qatar was working on the money front because the famous six billion then 12 billion dollars of Iranian frozen funds
they are in Qatari banks. So that's where Katar comes in and of course behind of that the Chinese without
saying a word not lifting a finger just watching the river flow observing everything because this was part of
their strategic relationship with both Pakistan and Iran.
8 minutesThat's where the new silk roads belt and road initiative comes in. These are two essential partners of the overarching
concept of Chinese foreign policy for the 21st century which is let's trade with everybody. This is what the the
BRRI is all about. And it's no wonder that for most nations in the world, China is the number one partner. For the
10 nations in Southeast Asia where I spend a lot of time in my life, all of them their number one trade partner is
China. China is one of the top trade partners of everybody in Central Asia, one of the key partners of Iran. He has
a strategic relationship with Iran as much as he has a strategic relationship with Pakistan. So what Larry just
announced correctly as a turn a complete geopolitical turnaround in West Asia.
It's included in the big turnaround in Eurasia in a crucial area of Eurasia where until 3 months ago we thought that
uh you know that's it the game is set uh the US is going to control this forever.
No, not at all. And this is one of the absolute key results of the war which we have to repeat it over and over again.
It was a major strategic defeat of the United States because they never had not even a plan B or C. They never had a plan A to start with.
And Larry can talk about this for hours.
Right. [clears throat] So now we are reaping uh the results and West Asia is reaping these results. So what we saw in Borgenstock and what
we're going to see this Thursday or Friday when the prime minister of Pakistan and General
Monourir are flying to Riad to meet MBS face to face and to go to the next stage
10 minutesof their military pact which is essentially okay guys now you are you are going to run the security umbrella
for West Asia for us Saudi Arabia and for other GCC members that may be interested,
Qatar, Q8, UAE, they're going to wake up, but it's going to take a few months.
And of course, this is not antagonistic to Iran because this has been already discussed with Iran because Pakistan is
the mediator for Iran. uh trustworthy uh the the fact that President Pzashkin
earlier this week, his first foreign trip since the start of the war on February 28, it was not to a neutral uh
European capital. It was not to Beijing, it was to slamat where uh Mr. Zean tells us how he was
received as a hero, as a brother, as one of us. Uh it's not only the gun salutes at the airport, the jets flying
overhead, Sharif reception, etc. is the way he was treated and the way he had uh
bilaterals and multilateral meetings in Islamabad discussing everything including the very very important angle
for uh Pakistan. Finally, one of the big soap operas of what I called years ago
pipeline is done, which is an evol it's an evolving soap opera, the Iran Pakistan gas pipeline. [snorts] Finally,
we have everything in place for this pipeline to finally be uh concluded and
Pakistan needs it. It's a pipelines are usual still umbilical cords between nations. So in terms of of a peace
dividend of of of a of a pipeline link nations this is practically [snorts] unbeatable and this is part of so it's
not only about u security it's about energy and it's about uh ramifications
of the new silk roads in Pakistan where they are part of one of the top new silk road projects the China Pakistan
economic corridor but for Iran as well because we have for instance the China Iran railway which was built by the
Chinese, paid by the Chinese and it's an overland cor connectivity corridor between Iran and and China via Central
Asia. But now Iran can also have Pakistan as a connectivity corridor to China. And what we were discussing about
Chabahar a few minutes ago, Larry, one of the most fascinating aspects of what happened this past three months
when Guadada, the port in uh um in in Bali in the Arabian Sea in Pakistani Baluchistan, which is only 80 kilometers
away from Shabahar, which is in Iran in Sistan Baluchistan. I was there last year when we were shooting our documentary on the international north
south transportation corridor and the authorities in the port of Chabahar.
They were showing me everything around they said ah you see those uh uh cranes over there. So these were brought by
Indians for instance India's very much present they invested over here and then I looked around and I saw two Chinese
tankers in the and I asked so but the Chinese are coming here as well. said yes they prefer to go to to Bandar Abbas
the big big port in the Persian Gulf but they're also coming here so sooner or later you're we're going to going to have more Chinese cargo landing in
Chabahar and even more Chinese investments in Chabahar which in uh for the Iranians they want to turn into a
sort of replica of Shenzhen in China it's the same principle free [snorts] port free zone and you we
can trade with everybody. So all this after the end I wouldn't say the end let's say after the I think Larry could
correct me after the current pause which is the MO right the current pause we never know where this is going to lead
but the geoeconomic uh interaction between Iran Pakistan and China is can
grow you know infinitely and of course later on on a second and third stage
investment by GCC players especially Saudi Arabia for instance inside Iran as well and all of that brokered by
Pakistan. So what we are seeing is an interconnection of all these key players from West Asia to South Asia that we could not even imagine three months ago.
Right. Right. Yeah. You know, the other the other thing to be uh aware of is, you know, if you if you listen if if
you're watching in the West, Fox News, and you're listening to Donald Trump, boy, the he's got everything. He's got
15 minutesthe Iranians uh uh in in a chokeold, that they have no no other option but to
uh obey the United States, and that oil is just flowing flowing out of the Persian Gulf. Uh all of that's a lie.
Yes. U you know there's so there's uh there are a couple of different uh programs online that you can look at.
One's called merit marinaretra.com and you go to marinetra.com and it shows you actually what ships are there, what's moving and where they're going.
And what's fascinating is u the the ships there are very very few ships
moving into the Persian Gulf. Number one, there are probably 12 ships moving out of the Persian Gulf and they're headed
to China, China. Singap Singapore. Exactly.
And and India. Yeah. So, it's Asia. Now, the rest of the Southeast Asian countries are still hurting very, very
badly. Now, so that's number one. Trump claims that 19 million barrels of oil have flowed out. He's trying. Trump has
an oil problem and that oil problem can be defined as a as a choice between
making diesel fuel and making aviation fuel. the uh heavy crude that comes out
of the Persian Gulf that the the disruption of that 20% of the world's supply has had a dramatic effect across
the globe in reducing the amount of fuel available to make diesel and aviation
fuel. Now if we go back beforeh February 28th uh before the start of the Ramadan
war at that point you would say we had a level of demand for diesel around the
world and we had B level of demand for aviation fuel. When the refineries get a
barrel of oil they don't sit there and say okay we're going to make uh 60% uh diesel and 40% aviation. No they have to
make a choice. They make either diesel or they make aviation. It's not it's not both together. So the they they try to
to meet with those demands and keep that steady. When the war happened all of a sudden it it dramatically spiked the
need for aviation fuel and the intense use of that fuel over the ensuing 40 45 day actually you know for it really went
on for about four months that that that jumped the demand. And meanwhile in the west, particularly in the United States, they started draining
their strategic petroleum reserves. Uh I've been told by an energy expert that
I respect that the United States has two weeks of supply left. And at that point,
the United States is consumers are going to be hit with a choice between either there's going to be less diesel
available the for big trucks to drive and deliver food to grocery stores or there's going to be less aviation fuel
for civil airliners that it's not that there is not enough oil on the high seas right now.
Exactly. they can be can be delivered to refineries and then refined in a in a sufficient time to produce the needed
either diesel or aviation fuel. So that this is this is one of those dramatic things that's behind the scenes that
Donald Trump has no control over. And even if they were even if there were all of these uh ships going into flooding
into the Persian Gulf, it's not going to change a thing. The other thing to remember is that there is a there's a obstacle. The all those ships that have
been sitting idle for four months, they're no longer ready to just be filled up with oil and sell out. They've going to require some maintenance and
some attention uh to detail uh to get get them get them ready to go again. And then on top of that, one of the reasons
you don't see a lot of ships flowing in there, the insurance question. As long as there is the threat of mines and the US Department of War said it's going to
take up to six months to remove those mines, the insurance companies like Lloyds of London aren't going to ensure ships to to travel through those waters.
So, this is one of those background dynamics where Iran is actually still uh in control of the situation.
Mr.
Uh I would like u at this point this is a good juncture for either of you maybe
Pepe you should be the one doing that uh provide a context to how Iran
ended up becoming a net security provider to Iran at the outside of the
war when Iran was being hit day and tonight.
Well, uh it's uh we have come across with an extremely sensitive piece of
information which prevents us from uh giving you all the technological details
of uh what's really going on. So we're going to use a Chinese way of announcing
it which is we can use metaphors, we can use images, figures of speech or
dissimulation or being quite cryptic but essentially
Pakistan led uh Iran to finally find a way to counteract the artificial intelligence generation.
ated killing of their top leadership.
21 minutesI'm sure many of you will draw your own conclusions just based on this sentence
and the repercussions are immense. Yes, this is linked to Chinese technological
breakthroughs. Yes, this is linked to Pakistani technological breakthroughs that something that they have for the at
least for the past two years in a technological center based in Islamabad.
And this was transferred to the Iranian leadership immediately after the assassination of Ali Larijani which at
the time Lijani at the time he was the secretary general of the supreme national security council of Iran but he
was the top de facto authority in Iran at the time apart from uh leader Moshaba
Kame who was still recovering from the serious wounds that he received on February 28th.
So one thing that you can see and you can look at the record and you can confront that everywhere immediately
after the assassination of Ali uh Ali Ladijani the targeted assassinations against the Iranian leadership simply
vanished and that's the definitive proof that the technological sub warfare that Islamabad
transferred to Thran is immensely ly effective and generated of course an
enormous extra problem not only for Israel but also for the US. So of course you can fill in the blanks on all the
names, all the companies, all the AI intelligence involved. But this is as far as uh I would say that at the moment
we have to be very um careful with this immensely explosive uh piece of
information. But this was confirmed directly and explains to all of you
everywhere why President Pzashkin was received with
so much grace and as literally a brother in Islamabad earlier this week and why
the Iranian leadership chose in their first trip abroad to go to Islamabad and not anywhere else including
So this is a big big big statement and all that is interconnected. It's a degree of trust between Islamabad and
Thran which once again and I think Mr. Z and Larry would agree we could not even imagine three months ago.
Right. Right. Well in fact there's a
[clears throat]
it I respect the work that Jeremy Scill does at Drop Site News.
They do a lot of good work, but they did come out and report in the LA, you know, a few days ago that it is actually Qatar that is running running the show that
Qatar is the one in the lead and and that that's just absolutely not true. Totally nonsense.
Yeah. uh Qatar is Qatar is actually I'll say favorably disposed towards Iran uh
in terms of it was Iran they came to their aid back in 2017 when the Saudis and the Amiradis were both trying to
isolate and and and attack uh the cut Qataris. Uh so the uh the Israelis
actually were you know found themselves up against the fact that Iran was backing Qatar. The Qatar was not isolated as it had been pre presented.
Um but Qatar is playing a role in conjunction in let's call it in collaboration with or as a junior
partner to Pakistan in this effort because on on Sunday when you know Donald Trump was insisting that the
Pakistan that that uh Iran would not get a single dime despite the fact that they were supposed to have frozen assets
unfrozen that they that Iran would have to buy US products and that was you know the United States was going to control
every dime. Uh the Saudis and then the uh Qataris both agreed that the 12 that
they would basically front the 12 billion dollars that the that Qatar would not that the Iranians would not
have to wait for the United States go begging for for the US to give them what is in fact their own money.
Their own money. Yeah. It's their own money. They're not they're not asking for a handout. They just want they want their own money back. You know, give it
back. You stole it. And and so uh this is uh you know cuter played an important role in that. It was interesting the
other day too. We all saw the video where the Qatari foreign minister when he was in warmly greeted by Prime
Minister Sharif of Pakistan also warmly greeted by General Munir and
ignored JDNG [laughter] but but later a very sheepish uh foreign
minister of Qatar was saying oh no no no that wasn't intentional that was just oh no we we'd had warm talks you know, [laughter] they're they're they're
trying to put some lipstick on that peg, but the fact of the fact of the matter was, you know, it it was a way to send a
message and not too subtle, I might add, but uh I think it was effectively communicated so that the United States
knows that the the day the era of threatening and bullying these Gulf States is over.
Mr.
Uh I cannot overemphasize what has come out of your mouths. I cannot overemphasize. You have done a marvelous
job of explaining and people can fill in the blanks. Those blanks are left
intentionally blank so that you can provide your own fill into it. Uh I will
say one thing which might be just contextual.
Please understand that prior to this war, Iran and Pakistan were not really good friends.
There was a lot of terrorist activity on the border and Pakistan had made many
complaints to Iran and Iran had not taken the appropriate action. According to Pakistan,
we all saw what happened when the war erupted. All of the world saw it.
Decapitation, which the Israelis like to do all the time and are proud of it.
They think this is their number one great technical skill. Kill everybody. And that happened.
[snorts] And then Ali Laurani got killed in the house of his daughter
on while he was breaking fast. his son got killed. His chief of staff got killed.
Pakistan made an offer to Iran to help with this matter because
Pakistan has a in Islamabad developed by the highest levels of
Chinese assistance uh a center of technology assist technology as excellence.
They developed their own technology and they said we are happy to help. Please let us help you.
And the world has changed after that.
Not one single Iranian leader has been killed since that happened.
Not one.
And the people who have the ability to make connections can make their own connection as to why that happened and
why Iran embraced Pakistan ever so tightly after that.
[snorts]
So I will let you do the final call. Uh Pepe, you are the world trotter.
No, no, come on. Not final call. Um okay, very very important. uh pay attention to what's going to happen in
Riyad Thursday and Friday with the Pakistani official visit to NBS and pay
attention to NBS decisions. So depending on what emerges from this visit then we
this boat in fact this super fast boat of the new uh security architecture in
West Asia will be sailing smoothly from Alno.
I will make one uh additional comment if you allow me. Yes. because I've spent my entire life dealing with the post Breton
Woods architecture. My entire life has has has been spent in that uh arena and
I know quite a bit about it. the petro dollar. I saw it firsthand being set up by Bill Simon, Treasury Secretary and
Kissinger, who contrary to everything that he said, asking Fisel to raise the price of oil.
Raise the price of oil, not bring it down.
The realm of the petro dollar is coming to an end. Let us announce it loudly and
clearly on this channel. The petro dollar ram is coming to an end. Five years from today, it will be at least
half of what it is today. And 10 years from today, it will be gone. And then people who have some wisdom can figure
out how the US is going to finance it 40 mill trillion dollars of debt.
Yeah. And well, in fact, let me let me give a challenge out there. If you're for those of you watching or listening,
yeah, take your favorite AI engine, whether it's Chat GPT or Gro or Claude,
and you're going to ask ask them an economic question relative to the uh the Middle East and oil and that situation
with OPEC is is an example. And what you'll find is this builtin bias, this
assumption in those engines that the petro dollar is solid, that it is
invulnerable to any kind of outside influence and that it is a firm reality
and then go back and start pointing out the anomalies where that that is absolutely not true anymore. And well,
there's nothing more, you know, entertaining than to get uh the so-called artificial intelligence having to admit that it's not so intelligent.
[laughter]
It all depends, it all depends on the intelligent man who wrote [laughter] the code, which may not be so intelligent.
Yeah.
Well, uh this I mean this is a real significant earthshaking tectonic shift taking place right now.
Yes. No, absolutely. That and that's why we can't emphasize it enough that uh what we're what we're we are we are
witnessing history being made in the same way that in the aftermath immediate aftermath of World War II and the Brett and Woods conference that took place up
in New Hampshire and the decisions being made for creating what was then a new global economic infrastructure. And then
in 1972, a quick revision going from the gold standard to the petrod dollar. Uh, and that petrod dollar era, it's lasted
53 years. But now we're on the cusp of something brand new. This war that the United States unleashed on on Iran.
Ironically, just as the uh the the West provoking Russia into the special military
operation in 2022 has set in motion and accelerated the development of of of new
architecture, new systems uh that that are in place to facilitate global trade.
Uh so like right now the bulk of the oil that's flowing out of the Persian Gulf is Iranian oil
and it's going to primarily China and Iran's not paying for the the it's not a matter of buying dollars to purchase or
sell that oil. It's happening with Chinese yuan. It's happening through the Chinese system called SIPs, the cross
interbank payment system and it is completely outside the control of the United States.
And this is one of the direct consequences of the war, Larry. This was a war among other things to protect the
petro dollar and ended up accelerating the future of the petro. Yeah, it's one of those wonderful historical
irons in front of us. That's the difference.
Yeah, it reminds me the end of that movie, The Hunt. You I always do movie references, but The Hunt for Red October where you had the the Russian the the
Soviet sub chasing the Sean Conry sub and yes and and he fires they said, "Okay, we got to put the torpedo so they
don't have any delay. Just put it on." and they fired the torpedo and the torpedo ended up coming back and killing themselves. That is that's that's the
met that's the metaphor for what's happening to the west.
That's the metaphor for what we're watching now. Absolutely.
Yes. And and I want to make a plug for our show if you don't mind.
Yes. We we set this up primarily to provide
very very high quality information that is sourced impeccably and delivered to
you by people who have 30 40 years of your trust namely Pepe Escobar and Larry Johnson and Vijay Prasad on Thursday.
Fad Lama who is a Lebanese who's been doing this all his life and maybe there will be one or two others. The entire
purpose of this podcast, this show is to provide you information that you will not get any place in the world. Not on
BBC, not on CNN, not in New York Times, but it is impeccably sourced and
delivered to you without varnish. So kindly subscribe, kindly like it and share it so that we can continue doing this.
Yep. This will be must mustwatch mustwatch television every week. Thanks so much, man. [laughter]
Yes, we we are scheduled to have Larry on Monday. Every Monday at
uh What time is it, Larry? Well, you and I, we do it at two, but it's recorded and it's put out by uh, you know, four 4
pm Eastern, which you know, hey, this is we're going global with this. So, you'll get to watch it at some point in your time zone.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yes. Yeah. It is going global with 10 languages within a week or so. And Pepe Escobar is on every Tuesday.
Every Tuesday around uh Paris time 9 p.m. 900 p p.m. Europe, Central Europe. and and on Wednesday the three of us.
Yes.
And we will keep doing this as long as we have something very significant that we believe you must know. Right. Thanks.
So thank you very much. Thank you very much for watching. We will we will see you again
all of us next week and and tomorrow you can see Vijay Prasad who has his own
perspective because he's a glo globe troter also. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

https://t.me/ExplosiveMedia/7339

Like Hussain, like Abbas
by Explosive Media
6/25/26

Tell the Yazids of the time, Trump and Netanyahu, and all the Epstein class.

We will never bow down.
Like Hussain,
Like Abbas,
Like Khamenei...

Part 1

Iran LEVELS Oil Tanker in Hormuz, Trump in SHOCK | Patrick Henningsen
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 5 hours ago #iran #straitofhormuz #iranwar

Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century joins the show to discuss escalation in the Strait of Hormuz as Iranian drones surprise Trump and burst asunder the myth that the US is in control.



Transcript

This is Danny Hayifong and these are the latest developments that have occurred over the last . A Singaporean flag vessel in the straight of Hormuz
was struck by an Iranian drone in the last on June 25th. Uh Wall Street Journal reports that this puts
the US Iranou on very shaky grounds and Donald Trump himself had an incredibly tepid answer for this saying that this
is obviously a violation of the ceasefire. As you can see here, Donald Trump also mentioned that there were more than one drone that attacked ships
in the straight of Hormuz in the last . Al Jazer confirms that Iran, after warning these vessels, three of them, uh, that they needed to turn
around, did indeed fire one-way drones at their way. Also, uh, occurring now,
the Wall Street Journal reports that the United States is about to change its force posture in the Middle East. Uh
this comes as Bahrain's fifth fleet, the US naval fifth fleet has about $400 million worth of damage. Saudi bases,
Qatar uh Kuwaiti bases, all may be closed and some institutions, military installations will go underground. To
discuss all of this and more, I have with me Patrick Hennington of 21st Century Wire. Patrick, thanks so much
for joining me again. It's always great to have you here.
Great to be with you, Danny. Yeah, everyone hit the like button. That helps boost the show. So, how about we get into that first story, Patrick? Your
reaction to this story that Iranian drones were firing at ships in the straight of Hormuz. Again, this comes
after we covered yesterday that the IRGC has been warning vessels. They need to take the prescribed route that Iran has drawn and some of them are not doing so.
What's going on here? And how significant is this? Is theou on as shaky ground as a lot of people, even
the American people in polls are uh uh assuming?
Yeah, I'm not sure if this is um hugely consequential. I mean, it could lead to, you know, maybe some diplomatic spat or
I hate to use the word diplomacy, but some political spat between the two countries. But at at the end of the day, what it does is it reinforces the
reality that Iran uh has operational control over the strait of Hormuse. So like it or not and uh you know these
types of incidents could uh happen uh and certainly there's a strict protocol there uh we are still you know the US the US is still at war with Iran.
There's been no peace treaty. So in terms of heightened security that's just a reality. So yeah we'll see. I I I I
don't think it's that big of a incident myself. Um but it does again indicate that uh and remind everybody uh who's in
charge of of the strait. So um could could have been a bigger international incident had it been from another country, a Singaporean flagged uh vessel.
Singapore is not, you know, they're not insignificant, but they're not China and they're not India. And so we'll we'll see how that
develops. Um the other part that's more interesting though is what you mentioned Danny about the US uh standing forces
agreement um in the Persian Gulf. That's uh that that that really reflects I think the the will of the Gulf States as
much as anything. Um certainly the US is exposed. The interesting thing is the underground bases uh uh a talking point
there. That means that you can kind of admit that warfare is changing basically. So I would imagine the United
States would be um perhaps investing in missiles and and drones to be deployed
from such facilities. But again that's going to be subject to I think approval.
That's the all this is going to be part of the negotiations with Iran and the Gulf States just going forward. So, you
know, the US is announcing I think for the US domestic audience, you're in America, so you'd know better than me um at this particular moment, but I think
the US domestic audience, I don't know if they are they quite I don't know if they've quite it's landed that they don't have the presence in the in the
region in the Middle East that they once had, like they physically will never regain it. Uh that's my belief, but I
don't know if that idea has fully landed yet in America. So when we see announcements from the Pentagon or from
the this government, I would assume the domestic audience is an important part of that, how how that plays with the domestic audience. I I see so many
problems with any US military facility uh in the region. Um yeah, but so what does that mean? That means that the
United States will be putting a lot more into covert actions and covert operations. Uh Syria being a perfect
5 minutesexample of that. Uh when Trump telegraphed that Galani might do a better job fighting Hezbollah, that wasn't just an insult or a slight to the
Israelis. That's Trump telegraphing an operation. He has he's always had a problem keeping his mouth shut, even though he is always boasts about being
the guy that nobody knows what he's about to do, Mr. Surprise, and keeping his enemies off balance and and his
allies off balance and his own government off balance, you know, and the world. So, uh, is is Syria going to
be a new dirty war? Is is the US going to reignite and and, uh, mobilize its, uh, the Israelis and the Americans
mobilize their assets um in al-Qaeda, ISIS assets in Syria to unleash a violent civil war on Lebanon. These are legitimate questions at this point.
Yeah, they are. And the uh interesting part about this I think about all these developments is that the Wall Street
Journal is getting out ahead of Washington uh even on the uh escalations in the straight of hormuz. It's a Wall
Street Journal that are reporting them first. It took actually it took more than a day for Donald Trump just to react to uh what happened to that
Singaporean vessel. But even this what you were talking about this um report by the Wall Street Journal. This is what they published, a satellite image of the
US naval fifth fleet uh in Bahrain. Uh this uh there has been no word from Sentcom or the Pentagon about what
they're actually going to do. It's all the Wall Street Journal publishing that indeed these damage are so dam these bases are so damaged that it's going to
cost so much money that they might even have to consider going underground with some installations to protect whatever
they're going to keep there and then coming up with really uh what I would call strange ideas maybe desperate ideas
of uh maybe some single runways that you you know they try during that commando raid uh so they're so that's a little
less predictable what they're where their installations are going to be. But uh nonetheless, all of this points to a
big pondering about whether the United States military will have a big presence in the Middle East at all.
Yeah. And it's not just the military aspect of it. It's the political side of it as well. You know, that all of this
war and the conflict over the last three months has raised some fundamental questions. The most obvious is why why
are the US in the region? Why do they need to maintain a position in the region? They had an excuse before. They
had a rationale uh before. Um it was to provide a security umbrella for their Gulf allies. At least that that's what
the official line was for the longest time. And of course, we know that that would be to protect the uh the the
integrity of the petro dollar uh and also the predictability of of world energy markets and so forth. But what
they told the Gulf states, the political pitch for the US position in the region was always that they needed protection
from the Iranian threat. That's that was always the political pitch. And then for Israel, it's we now know the the broader
agenda is to provide a security umbrella really for Israel, not the Gulf because we saw what happened to the Gulf States
in the first uh hours of this war with Iran. It began on February 28th. the US just painted a massive target on all of
them and as you as you've shown here on screen just now and the other locations Kuwait thoroughly trashed uh as well as
Bahrain damage to Saudi Arabia UAE uh and so forth. So uh I'll throw Jordan in
there as well although it's not a a Gulf oil shikum u but it is a sort of protectorate uh nonetheless. So that why
are the US there? They they they have to I think that this question has to be revised because if it's to keep an eye
on Iran, you know, why you know what are they going to do? They've already they've already gone toe-to-toe with the Iranians. They've already keep an eye
make sure they are not developing a nuclear weapon. They don't need to have bases in the Persian Gulf for that. So, uh these questions are going to have to get answered in in the US politically.
And I think they're having a hard time.
They're having a hard time. the Iran's not afraid of the United States. That's clear. So the deterrence is no longer effective. So it it would have to be not
just before it was just the US presence that provided the deterrence. The threat that the US might get involved that provide the insurance. Now the presence
has to be technical. It has to have a function. And if if it's if it's going to be a cases belly or create put a
target on the the Gulf States, then that's not you know what's the utility in that for the host country really. So
this is a question if it's and it can't be just for Israel because that that card's already been played and that hand
is a bust at the moment. So, you know, I I I if if they just need to be there for covert, you know, to provide support for
covert action, that's makes sense from a military CIA point of view. But what the hell are you doing in the region with covert actions?
Yeah, no one asked those questions before. Now, those are all on the table for discussion because there nobody's under any illusion now. They've already
done the subtifuge, the regime change, the the mobs, the armed the mobs in Iran. and they've done all that assassinating leaders. So, you know, the
agenda is pretty clear. I don't think the Iranians are really going to have a lot of patience for some of this uh even if it's incrementalism on the part of
the US. So, we'll see. It's again, this all going to be part of ongoing political negotiations and positioning between Iran and the Gulf allies.
Why do you believe Donald Trump uh you know for a lot less sometimes without even
uh without anything happening Donald Trump comes out with very strong threats against Iran um oftentimes not backed up
sometimes uh there are retaliation there has been retaliation but of course not since theou was agreed upon but all he
had to say about this latest incident in the straight of hormones was obviously this is a foolish violation of our ceasefire agreement. Nothing
else, no other words. And it took a while just to even react to this, let alone the reports about the military, the damage to the US military in the
region, which he still claims in stark denial that uh no, it's not the US that's been damaged. It's only been
Iran. Iran has been knocked out. Uh all they want to do is give us everything.
What have you made of this dynamic? It's a change in tone because it's all about now how the US has won. They're giving
us every Iran has given us everything and uh everything's going very very very well.
Well, that's that's that's how it has to be uh communicated to the American public and um and to to the Europeans as
well. Uh but I think people in the region know better. They know what the the real situation is. So he's not, you
know, these these ridiculous tweets that I mean, beside the fact that the president of the United States is doing foreign policy on a website that he owns
is in itself is just so strange and bizarre and shouldn't be take taken seriously. I'm going to say this is not
a serious administration and it's very inconsistent and erratic.
Trump's communications, as you rightly point out, very erratic all over the place. his position will flip from like you know even between breakfast and
dinner uh there'll be a complete 180. So it's not it's not serious and it's not anything you can base um any real
relations on. Uh it's not anything that's going to engender any trust um in the United States. A lot of people are just hanging back think just bracing
themselves for what the US might do next um in terms of you know aggression uh some sort of attack sanctions or some
other sort of you know belligerent move by by the US that's not really a good I think formula for uh being a
constructive actor in the region. I'm going to go so far as to say I mean I'm I you probably will gather I'm hugely
skeptical of this um peace process. Um I think I think it's doomed it's it's
potentially doomed to fail ultimately uh because of a number of reasons. One of which is that uh the Israel factor it
just provides a type of um structural flaw in everything that gives a potential for failure almost at every
single juncture. Now things are stable a couple of days uh you know relatively
speaking issued a a nonoffensive shooting order from the Israelis
reportedly imposed by the US. But, you know, that might hold for like or I don't think it's actually held
quite frankly based on the reports that we've seen. But, you know, for the most part, maybe a week, but who knows? There could be anything. And what whatever
breaks it is going to be strategic on the part of the Israelis as well. So, this is why it it's really hard to put a
whole lot of currency and expectations in um this peace process being successful. the Trump's uh team and his his record is horrible. You know, really
bad. So, uh we're we're meant to keep our hopes up. You know, the good a really successful propaganda is always
based on something that people desire to happen. They really are desperate to see happen and that is always the most effective propaganda. So, in a way, the
administration can use this um to really push very potent propaganda because people are exasperated. People are desperate. They're fed up and they're
tired of uh the US and Israel and what they've done. And so, they they can really kind of I don't know, get people
on board with this process thinking that this is great. We're making progress. Um but a lot of it is pro, as we've seen already, is propaganda. A lot of the
statements made by JD Vance, by Donald Trump at the government, completely false, completely fake. And it just shows you that they're not serious about
negotiations. They're not serious about diplomacy. Maybe they'll get serious a bit and maybe for a while, but I don't
see the deep commitment. What I do suspect is that they're going to hedge their position with covert actions.
That's that that that's my best guess.
That's my educated guess. You never trust the United States. They're not honest. They're not a uh pe government of their word, especially this
administration. You know, they're very underhanded. Look at what they've done already. So, they don't negotiate in good faith. That's clear. We have proof
and receipts for that. Um so, I I hope the Iranians are aware of this and um
vigilant about this this this potential here. Um I I I've always said in the
last couple of weeks especially that this is a real stalemate. This is a deadlock for Israel. You know they I
Iran imposing itself in this process and making Lebanon at the top of the list of priorities. This has created a real uh
stalemate for the Israelis. The only thing that can break that there's only to me only two two maybe three scenarios that could break that. One is a targeted
assassination that could cause a chain of events. The other is so a targeted assassination, a
false flag attack um is is another one uh that would again cause a chain of events that would cascade into something
uh whereby uh it would cause quite a lot of chaos and and normal diplomacy negotiations wouldn't be able to it it
wouldn't have enough bandwidth to deal with it. Third thing is uh in a third a third party actor uh being being thrust
into the scene in order to uh create uh chaos and instability um in Israel would take their cues at that point um to to
to to consolidate the where their positions. So basically using a proxy to attack Hezbollah is a is an example.
That one looks like it's more than just plausible. it it's it's now drifting
into the uh realm of probability. Uh at this point I think just they're so desperate. Is this just unacceptable for
the Israelis internally um the United States have a hard time managing Israel and all the pro-Israel surrogates and
all the various operatives in Trump's own administration as well as in the media and in politics in America. So the
the these are these three scenarios I think in this case are likely and you know if history is any guide this is
exactly how Israel I think managed the uh the the the Lebanese civil war back
in the uh 19 uh 80s. So the same type of uh kind of I don't know state craft
sorcery was applied back then uh to create false pretext for invasions uh and all sorts of other things. So I I I
would I would assume and that was the same. It was a it was a it was a deadlock before in Lebanon in the 80s.
Same similar situation now. Slightly different characteristics. But I I would bet on Israel using the same methods in
order to break that stalemate and move things in their direction and gain momentum and at the expense of the Lebanese. Absolutely. There's nothing
the Americans and the Israelis would like more than to see a bloody violent civil war in Lebanon. this is what they stay stay up at night hoping and wishing
and they'll do they've already done everything possible to this point to try to make that happen politically but now
are they going to apply force to make that happen by introducing a third party uh into the mix uh that remains to be
seen yeah the question of Lebanon is very much unresolved now there are these reports supposedly that there's some uh
renewed ceasefire arrange ment I I feel like this term is beginning to lose all meaning and I think it loses even more
meaning when we hear Donald Trump you know this isn't us being so-called uh you know Trump derangement syndrome anything like this as you said this is
the record so I believe it's actually worrisome whenever we hear someone as uh addicted to deception as Donald Trump is
talk about how everything is going well and Iran wants to give everything to them and there's nothing going on here is here's his mood lately.
Navyund they had 159 ships within one and a half weeks they were all at the bottom of the sea and then I have to listen to the fake news. Oh, they're
much better today than they were. These people are crazy. They want to make a deal with us very badly. And uh we
probably will. I think we will. But the straight is open. Uh yesterday they took out 19 million barrels of oil. That's the most in the history of the straight.
And the oil prices are dropping like a rock. And you know, you know what's interesting though? Uh not only is there about a fourth about
uh activity, a fourth of the activity of before the war occurring in the straight of Formus. Lots and lots of ships still stranded there. But the gas prices are
not going down in conjunction with the oil prices going down. Actually, I can just, you know, walk down the block and see that uh the reduction in gas prices
21 minutesabout 20, 30, 40 cents maybe. But the drop in gas prices are down into the high uh the oil prices into the high 60s
early 70s. Even the Trump administration is getting a little angry at this. The oil companies are saying tough. But your uh your thoughts about this uh this kind
of mood? I feel like when a mood when there is this kind of mood going on, it it just like anything else, this is this feels like a pause in an attempt to uh
build up a different kind of approach to to this war. Uh knowing that as you we've talked about on the show, midterms are coming up and the political fallout has been really bad.
Yeah. Um what what in the world did he say? 18 billion barrels. Yeah, I think he said 19 actually.
19 billion barrels of oil. Do you realize what the what's the global production in a year?
22 minutesWhat the hell is he talking about?
You know, uh, per day before the war, what was it? 20
bill 20 million barrels before the war per day. That's full capacity.
20 million barrels of oil before the war.
How where did he get 18 billion? I mean, it's it's I'm I'm not being nitpicky,
but it's it's things like that that the president of the United States, it just doesn't endear any confidence and it makes one question whether he
understands what he's talking about. Um maybe he meant million. I don't know.
Yeah, I think he said million, but uh even so, it's Yeah, the activity is far exaggerated. Yeah,
it it's probably exaggerated what he's saying as well. even if he meant million uh I'm sure so um yeah the the the the
the energy shocks priced into the market already. So um he's trying to sell this like uh this is somehow a quick fix and
he's taking credit for it and it's going to be uh uh everything's going to be great. Gas prices are going to fall. No,
it's that it's a huge disruption in the global supply chain. So, um, not not not
to mention all the inflationary pressures that are going to come with that as well. Um, not to mention the stock market crash that's coming from
the overvaluation of the AI stocks. This is a perfect storm. Uh, and there's really nothing this president can do to
make it right. And he's actually responsible for all of it. For all of it. So, he's going to have to own it at
some point. My my my fear Danny would be if uh he doesn't want to own it because people like this don't like to take
responsibility for anything. Uh so he will look for an excuse to blame it on somebody and who knows maybe even feel
compelled to attack somebody um after he's blamed them for uh the failure of this uh this deal which is
not going to fail because of anything Iran's doing. It's going to fail most likely because of something the US or Israel has done. Uh, so I don't think
we're out of the woods yet. Uh, because it when you see this this that's the problem. This erratic talk, it's e Trump either is setting it up, he's setting up
the board for some future move, uh, underhanded move at some times. Um, uh, but it's definitely not stable talk.
It's not reliable sort of discourse to that indicates anything stable from from the US and and committed and consistent.
No, it's not. That's the problem. I always worry about the adviserss because normally a president would have good adviserss that would prevent him from
making a fool out of himself or creating more problems by things that he says. Uh clearly that's not the case with this president doesn't have any such
adviserss. So, if he doesn't have any adviserss that want to keep him out of trouble, um, who is his top adviser? Is it himself?
Is he his top adviser? Because that's pretty frightening. Just a legitimate question. And certainly, I hope it's not
his top adviser is Jared Kushner, his son-in-law. That's uh that's not great either. So, and know I don't know. It's
uh I I I think I think the talks I I think this process personally is going nowhere. Um, I think it will net some
hopefully some positive steps in the interim that might create conditions for possible future framework. I hope so.
Um, unsanctioning of oil and restraining Israel even temporarily. I think these are all positive things. We're all
everyone's very happy about these things. But long term, can can they stick to it? Can they make
it happen long term? Can they remain consistent? We're not sure. It's not convinced.
Yeah. I mean there's a lot of as this process uh goes from days to weeks uh into months now I noticed that there is
a lot more um concern arising about whether you know uh this ceasefire
thisou is a good deal for Iran. Of course, uh we've covered on this show
the the terms are indeed uh very much favorable to Iran. Uh but at the same time, there are those who are concerned
about you know uh the I think the uh perhaps the giving up of
leverage over time. The longer that this goes on, the more that things ease in the straight of horm. Uh there have been
some uh people also who have been not happy about the uh possibilities of a long-term conversation with the United
States about Lebanon, about even Gaza uh uh taking place when uh you know the United States, as you said, can't be
trusted to fulfill any of its terms. I'm curious on what you believe uh this all
means for Iran and for the world right now that uh we have this uh seemingly
cracking so-called ceasefire thisou which uh you know uh the longer this
goes on the 60 days will come up very soon and uh uh you know it's doesn't look promising that somehow all of these
terms all of these issues in thisou will be resolved. Then if you think the US is honest and doing this in good faith and not just buying
time to restock and resupply the munitions and that of their ally Israel, um interceptors, uh JDM bombs, uh
restocking basically for you know potentially another round of hostilities. I think that would be naive to assume that's not the case. I I would
absolutely assume that's the case. Uh certainly from an Israeli point of view, that's absolutely a requirement.
Absolutely requirement. They're not planning for peace. Um Israel. So if Israel is not planning for peace, the United States still supports them, still
supplies them, still helps man manage their whole defense array, and they're right there side by side with them. So
that's uh that's going to happen. And so the buildup, there's a buildup happening now and a reconfiguration of uh forces
and capabilities in the region. It's happening now. So the US and and when the time when they're stronger, they'll be in a position to um perhaps be more a
little bit more aggressive. They're not right now. uh they're in a very I think uh weak position uh the US and Israel in
in terms of especially compared to where they were before and strategically you know Israel has its its uh objectives
but the US has no strategy anymore they've got nothing they have no strategy just uh playing spoiler I guess
uh that's the role in the region I don't see any real clear strategy the strategy was to make sure Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon this is kind of a bogus
uh claim uh as well. They're doing nuclear talks now.
Uh and I think Iran can just go through the motions and keep the US busy uh with this for for a while. Uh in fact, so and
you know, it's almost like you're really getting tired of Trump boasting about how many ships he's sunk, how many Iranian planes he he's destroyed,
whatever. um you know what what what's the basis for the US uh attacking Iran uh taking out their navy? Did the
Iranian Navy ever fire on in the US? No, they didn't. Did the US sink any Iranian ships uh on armed ships? Yes, they did.
Did they kill Iranian sailors? Yeah. So, if anyone has a motivation to uh attack
the US uh naval assets in the region, it's Iran. and there they would be within their right to do that under the
laws of war. Uh but that's always a a problem is so if it's just about bragging how much uh of the other side's
things that you destroyed or wrecked uh this is is a bad look for the US Americans
kind of writing it off at the moment but I think internationally it's a very very bad look for the US. Again, I I I would
advise somebody who's advising the president to sort of tell him to put a sock in it because he's doing so much
damage to to himself, to the office, to to to the US and their reputation uh on
the international uh stage. Um so I'm again worried that there's no such
person that can restrain him. I I I I'm really reticent and not 100% believing.
There's a lot of pundits on podcasts and things like that and they'll say things like, "Trump really doesn't want to go to war with Iran. He's never wanted to
go to war with Iran." And I really believe in my heart of hearts that Trump really doesn't want this war. He was pushed into it by the Israelis. It
doesn't make a difference at this point what he wanted or didn't want five years ago or two years ago. The fact is he did it.
Yeah, he did [clears throat] it and it committed the US to it. He doesn't know why necessarily why he did it. He doesn't know why it's wrong. He might so
to have an idea now he's heard enough press and listened to enough people that he might know why it's bad. But in terms
of him being inherently anti-war or inherently virtuous, I don't believe it for a second. I I don't believe I I I
think for him he's a moral relativist and his morals and ethics are just relative to the situation in a
transactional sense. So I I I I I hear this a lot. And why is that important?
Because people always trying to track the motivation and the psychology of this president and uh and saying that
he's got this dove side. I'm I I'm sorry. I I I see no indication of this at all. I think the only thing that the reason they have stopped is because
they've been restrained. Simple. Either restrained from their inability to keep fighting or restrained by the Iranians
and restrained by their Gulf allies quite frankly.
Yeah. So, and domestically some members of the US uh political, you know, Congress or Senate, certain
members um and the the crowd that they command, including Tucker Carlson, Thomas Massie, and others, Candace
Owens, and these sort of right-wing conservatives, conservative pundits, and the fact that Tucker announced he's leaving the Republican party, that's a
huge warning shot ahead of the midterms uh for for for Trump. So, but yeah, I'm not convinced, Danny, that there's this
kind of crypto anti-war kind of virtuous Trump hiding behind the mask, you know,
following the instructions of his better angels. I just don't see it. I haven't seen it from the beginning. So, um that
that's why I'm again not uh I'm not um I'm very skeptical of anything that he does that looks or sounds like it's
mildly positive or or resembling common sense because I know it it might not it might not actually be authentic. it
might not be, you know, a deep-seated value or uh a part of his integral part
of his, you know, his his leadership. Uh yeah, I mean I would I would highly
caution on so many things. First of all, anyone who is involved and is part of the Epstein class as some people are
talking, I think we should caution anyone into looking too deeply into what kind of value system these people hold that uh has anything to do with uh
restraining themselves on on violence, war, uh you know, any kind of exploitation. I would I'd be highly
doubtful on that. And also even the relationship with Israel be highly doubtful. We've we've been through this rodeo before. Oh my god, look at all the conflict, the phone calls, all of this.
And then we see in the medium-term, the medium long term, the the the collaboration remains very ironclad. I
would not put much stock in this beyond the need for a pause. Maybe I could see a little bit of disagreements of okay,
US wanting a pause and Israel being like, no, no, no pause. Beyond that, I just don't see any why why there would be any disagreement. Then just to pile
on the uh morals and the motivations, why we shouldn't be looking too deeply into motivations. I mean, this is this
is someone Patrick that continues to deny the one of the worst war crimes in the 21st century, maybe the worst single
war crime in the 21st century. Uh the bombing of the Manab school that was obviously conducted by US by US Tomahawk missiles uh killing over 168 children.
This is his response to any question about it. Uh continued denial and absolute no no care no care about not
even a care about the US's image for denying such a thing which when everyone knows in the world it was the US who did it.
Can I ask you look you have to you have to say he's courageous. He's got great equipment but he's got Can I ask you one other question? Have
you seen the report into the Minab school attack? Sir, can you tell us? I have not seen it. No.
Why not? point. Well, I have to wait for it to be complete. I don't know that they're ever going to solve that problem. And you could ask Pete, but I
don't know that they're ever the it was one of our missiles. Pete, I don't know that they're ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it
because there were missiles flying all over the place.
And it's horrible what happened. But there were missiles flying all over the place. And somebody said it was our missile. Well, maybe it was an army
missile, but I've seen nothing to lead me to believe it was. There were plenty of missiles being flown by other people. What do you think?
By other pe other people. What? The the Israelis probably using your missiles if if if it was the Israelis, but nonetheless, you were working together.
Very proud on February 28th if I know you remember that, Patrick. They're very proud of their collaboration then. But yeah, this is what I'm talking about.
Your your reality. It's like we shouldn't be looking too deeply into motivations here when obviously uh the
the uh center of these people is uh has nothing to do with morals.
37 minutesNo, he he he would he would rather walk over a bed of fiery red hot coals and
broken glass than to ever admit or take responsibility for uh the myriad of war
crimes uh which he is guilty of. And you see how he deflects to he's so insecure.
He's such a coward. Our president, he has to deflect to the Fox News weekend host Pete Haggset. Say, "What do you
think, Pete?" Wasn't one of ours, was it? This is the same type of cope you saw in Gaza when Israel hit a hospital.
They tried to blame it on Hamas. They said, "Oh, it was an Israeli missile. It was a Hamas missile that that misfired and did a U-turn and ended up hitting the hospital." Just totally shameless.
um Israeli and US mainstream propaganda.
This is worse because it was a double tap.
You know, it was a double tap. So, just what a coward. Um completely shameless
38 minuteshustler Donald Trump. It's it's it's not even embarrassing at this point, you know, when when you see that. It's why a
lot of Republicans and former supporters can't stand the sight of him. They just don't want to see him anymore. his the mere sight and sound of his voice
induces nausea at this point. These are his supporters and it's because of that he's just a fundamentally dishonest and
you know dark mean-hearted person uh deep down he's got no not doesn't have a compassionate bone in his body. Um he is
an absolute uh uh robot on autopilot uh a narcissistic uh android as far as
we can see. So, I mean, it's just ridiculous. And, you know, it's it's it's also the the whole shtick of him holding court with his entourage is just
so embarrassing. That's that is a fundamentally weak leader needs to always be flanked by his entourage of stooges, yesmen who sit there. Yes, sir.
Yes, Mr. President. He's got one next to him, the the the the looney Dutchman, Mark Rut, secretary general of NATO.
What does it take to do that job?
whatever. And he's got pie charts and graphs that he's showing off to daddy and and trying to, you know, ingratiate
himself uh with the president. Just the the sickopanty of that whole display with Mark Route from from the
Netherlands is embarrassing. And uh he's clearly angling for a job in Washington or with some defense contractor. Um so
he's absolutely kissing the you know what of Donald Trump. Um, but what what Rut did, what's funny about that is he
basically was bragging about how many US flights, you know, how NATO played a role in attacking Iran.
Yeah, it's an undeclared I have that clip actually. I have that clip actually. Yeah, I'd love to see it. [laughter] We can we can play that. It's very
40 minutesshort. Uh because I wanted to actually talk about um uh this uh and what it means for Europe and of course whatever else you wanted to say. Here you go.
I think so. Yes, you're right and and I totally understand the disappointment.
But when you take for example Italy, 500 US planes took off from US bases in
Italy uh to support uh epic fury. So this is massive. Um when you look at the whole of European between four and 5,000
a country like Romania its capital uh Bucharest they had to cut down on commercial air airflights and airplanes
because they had to use the airports for the tanker facilities. So all this is taking place.
So uh there you go. Europe was a major party to the war in Iran which of course uh very good for Europe right Patrick your your whatever you please continue.
I know answer it's what he's done there is he's I'm I'm glad he did he's done this because it's opened up a big
41 minutesconversation and he he's implicated Italy and Romania and we can also throw Germany and
Britain and other countries Greece uh into that mix these these NATO members he's implicated them in an illegal
undeclared war of aggression completely illegal completely un unprovoked and uh just rapacious killing
of Iranian civilians and uh infrastructure and just trying to do damage, war crimes, crimes against
humanity. He's he's implicated all these NATO countries. So what what Mark Rut's basically done there is saying that
Europe's in the war. Europe's part of the war. We we are a co-elligerent.
Europe is a co-elligerent in the war. Uh Iran didn't violate Article 5. They did attack some US bases where the US is in
NATO. How come the European countries uh didn't send their air force to attack Iran? Of course, they didn't send anything. Not going to do anything because the United States is NATO.
But what they've done there is Iran, according to the laws of war, would have
every right to fire an intermediate range ballistic missile at any of these
bases in Italy, in Greece or Cyprus or Romania or Germany.
And what would the Europeans do? Oh, there would just be righteous indignation and outrage. How dare these
Central Asians attack Europe? This is an unprovoked attack of Europe. We can't allow this to stand. We mustn't appease.
This is uh you know Hitler all again.
It's Poland glowitz. That's that's the reaction of the Europeans and not having any of the self-awareness to understand
that they are a co-elligerent. They've allowed their bases like Saudi, like Bahrain, like Kuwait,
43 minuteslike uh the other Gulf states that were the UAE that um basically incriminated
themselves by hosting US military bases that were used to uh attack and murder Iranians
and destroy Iranian infrastructure, which is a a war crime. So, they they painted a target on themselves technically. You know, Iran's not doing
that. They're probably not going to do that. But if they wanted to, they could.
And they would be completely legally, according to international law, within their rights. And Mark Ruti Mark Route
himself just impuged Italy and all of these countries. He just sentenced
Europe to a future uh debit on their ledger. Okay?
You notice how nobody ran to the defense of the Gulf States because they couldn't make a legal argument because Iran was right.
Do you notice that nobody came to the to their aid? Really, because they couldn't. They're caught with their pants down allowing the US to use them
as lily pads for attacking uh and starting a massive risky and horrendous
war. And the Europeans are no different than the Gulf States in that respect. No different.
The only difference is ah it's white Europe. They wouldn't dare attack us. We can attack them. That's fine. We're okay
with that. Let's celebrate it. 500 US flights from Italy.
You want a standing ovation for Mark Route? Oh, but if the Iranians hit back, no, no, no. That's just that's an act of
war. Back snapback sanctions and all the rest of it. This aggression must not stand. I mean, I'm so sick of these people. But this this is the same
convoluted argument they use with Russia. They're just able to they've been able to sell this with Russia and erase the fact of everything that
happened from the Maidan and uh NATO's uh proxy war in the Donbass for 8 years
prior to uh February 2022. They're able to whitewash all that because they have total control of their own media and
political discourse to the point where most people don't even know what actually happened in Ukraine and how it happened, much less have a clue that the
United States initiated a violent coup in a civil war in that country which led to
Russian intervention in the Dombas. Uh so but with Iran, it's no different.
It's no different. So it it really I think that's one of the really obvious
uh failures of the argument coming from the west. Mark Route just exposed it. I mean we have to thank him. We need to
send him a card or maybe a box of cookies or biscuits or something to thank him for Victoria Nuland when you need her. Huh.
46 minutesYeah. The bag. Mrs. Fields. Um so uh that's one of them. Um the other one is there's another uh collusion. I I don't
want to belabor this point because I've talked about this a lot recently because I think it's a central point and it needs to be discussed. This can no
longer be relegated to the kind of can't talk about it category. The whole basis
of the impass in Lebanon is based on one thing that the US, Israel and its allies
have labeled Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and that gives them cart blanch to occupy Lebanon to violate international law to do everything
outside of international law. The United Nations does not designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and neither do
most countries in the world. But Israel does and its allies must if Israel um uh if Israel insists that's why those
designations exist. Hezbollah isn't hasn't attacked any European countries.
Uh they don't have an expeditionary terrorist arm but they are legally prescribed as a terrorist organization and their political wing which holds the
majority of seats in the Lebanese parliament is also prescribed as a terrorist organization. Explain how you do that. So but that's the problem. That
is the seed of everything because that's allowed them to isolate Hezbollah and it's allowed them to leave them kind of
to fend for themselves in South Lebanon to to repel the Israeli invasion to protect the southern border. Okay.
um if if if if they allowed the Lebanese armed forces to have all of the equipment like an air force and air
defense to control their own airspace, um Israel would not be able to roam around cart blanch in Lebanon and there
would be uh you know resistance and negotiations ultimately because force meets force of ultimately there's going to be negotiations. There's nothing now
just bullying and a Lebanese armed forc's policy of not to engage with Israel. So Hezbollah is engaging with him and this is all by design. This has
been engineered this situation over decades because the US want to separate the and Israel wants to separate the
Lebanese army from Hezbollah. They don't want them to integrate like the Iraqis did after the battle uh of ISIS when the Hashe was folded under the Iraqi mod.
They don't want that in Lebanon. They want to isolate them so they can pick them off. Um and also so that gives them an excuse to invade and occupy. That's
simple. And this is the this is the basis of it. There there have been groups that have been prescribed as terrorist groups and then the the
prescriptions reversed. It's happened to the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
That's a good example. What about the MEK? The United States had them listed as a terrorist organization. Now they're not for different reasons. is obviously
not for anything good that the MEK has done. Although pouring money into the pockets of US congressman senators is
probably a good thing in Washington. Uh that's what the MEK has been doing since Hillary Clinton lifted their prescription in 2012. They're just
pumping money into the US political system as bribe money um to get them to well they promise that they'll achieve
regime change in Iran. That's the whole sales pitch for the MEK. So what I'm saying Danny is that's the center of the problem actually that's what's
distorting the whole thing and creating this trip wire that and allowing Israel to do break every rule to commit genocide.
You could extend the same question uh to other uh resistance groups in Palestine.
Not going to name any names but take your pick.
Right. So that's that's another conversation that Europe is too too afraid to have because they don't want
to go against the Israel lobby in the United States. So they just go along to get along. Well, guess what? Look at the situation in Lebanon. You think this is
good? And who are the terrorists in Lebanon? Who's been slaughtering civilians? Who's displaced 1.5 million people? Not Hezbollah.
Israel has. Who are the terrorists? Just look at the record. Look at what they've done. How long can they keep this facade
going? This this pantomime, this joke of a geopolitical theater in in in in the
political sense. I mean, it's not a joke on the ground. Not for the Palestinians or the Lebanese, but in terms of the political the politics of it, it's a
joke. It's a bad joke at this point. And you know, shame on the uh political leaders in Europe, in the US for
allowing this pantomime to continue and all based on these uh political designations that are not objective
definitions of anything. And again, the United States doesn't list any of these groups [clears throat] as terrorist groups. In fact, the uh the the the UN
charter article 51 says, well, you have a right to armed uh liberation struggle
by force if necessary uh in for self-defense. So that's that's in article 51. It's also enshrined in the
Geneva Conventions which we all ratified our governments. We've ratified the Geneva convent conventions and international human rights law as well.
It it's so if the whole purpose of this deception is to to to take this
situation out of an international law framework to pull it out so that we they can run their own bilateral justice framework between the US and Israel.
Hezbollah is completely compliant with international law and compliant with ceasefires. Israel is not. So, but they
don't want to give them agency and they can do that simply by slapping a label on them. It's as simple as that. This is
this is the central fundamental obstacle in my opinion and it's been
abused and look where it's got us. Look where it's got us. Not very good. Not a very good place.
Yeah. we can uh the number of uh Israeli settlers that have been injured and or
or killed by Hezbollah is just is such a dramatically small number and we've covered that here on this program. uh
and nonetheless, exactly as you said, they have the right uh to resist occupation. And you mentioned uh groups, you know, the precedent has been set in
the past for the United States to undesate terrorist groups. But uh there was there was one, remember Patrick, uh
2024, what happened in Syria, HTS, aka al-Qaeda in Syria came to power on the
uh with Golani as the uh figurehead. He had a massive bounty on his head by the US State Department for how long? And
now no more bounty. And he is the president of Syria. And he sat down at the United Nation with who? David Petraeus. And and these types and just sat in the oval office, Danny.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and the the the cologne.
And he was given two what? Two, three, hundred cologn, you know. Yeah. So so so so that was reversed.
They they reversed al-Qaeda.
So don't tell me it's impossible and it can't be done. Of course it can't be done. By the way, uh you mentioned people killed in northern Israel. Okay.
Um that is part of uh back and forth hostilities.
But what started it? What started it October 8th, October 9th? What happened?
Hezbollah fired rockets and on IDF positions and the global headlines said or what Trump calls the fake news. The
fake news said Hezbollah attacked Israel, but that was a lie.
54 minutesThose IDF uh positions were in occupied Lebanese stroke Syrian territory, the Sheba
farms, not in Israel. Israel is in violation of international law, multiple UN resolutions by even being there.
They're legitimate targets, the IDF. So Hezbollah was merely uh firing at
invaders. technically and then Israel unleashed all hell after that against Lebanese targets and Hezbollah
responded. So by the time you're into the response and and counter response and tit for tat, you you can't go and sort of wag your finger and say that uh
you know after Israel has you know completely slaughtered thousands of Lebanese civilians for no reason, you
can't go and then complain uh if returns fire in northern Israel. So for the very same just they can use the same
justification Israel does in terms of their security. They are Lebanese and they're not occupying Israeli land, but
Israel is occupying Lebanese land and lots of it now. But even before that, they're occupying 13 different uh
slivers of uh behind the UN blue line or on the UN blue line and they were supposed to leave from those positions
from 2000 and they didn't. Why? Oh, because of our security needs, Israel.
So they don't have to abide by any international law. Look, if we imposed international law, the US decided it was going to do that, all of these problems
would be gone like that. It would just evaporate. It'd be over. But the US can't do that because they themselves uh
don't want to be pulled up on all their violations of international law. That's the problem. Yeah. You can't open the can of worms.
Nope. You cannot over well you know in the last five minutes that we have Patrick I I mean uh I think it must be noted that whether it's Hezbollah
Palestinian resistance and let's put Iran I mean of course we put on in there let's put Iran in there now even with the what we opened with in the straight
of Hormuz throughout this whole period fire whether it was firing on tankers or targeting US assets in the region the
number of uh human beings whatever you think whether it's US military people on these tankers that have been injured or
killed is minuscule to what Iran has experienced. And Iran intentionally, we can see it even with something like
hitting this tanker with a drone or the US assets. They're out there to destroy the assets. They don't actually really
care or care to hurt people. you we don't think that uh a Karashabar, however you say it, or any of these
advanced Iranian missiles and these drones can't kill people. They don't think they could have gotten that F-15 pilot. Uh they could have probably, but
they don't. Uh in large part because they follow the laws of war and they have no interest. Actually, I I believe in Iran for Iran and probably for a lot
of the resistance is killing people is probably seen as not not, you know, the most uh desirable thing when it comes
but it might it you know dead US soldiers could advance the Iranian cause in so much as they might uh create
pressure in the US political system to uh deescalate or withdraw. But that's not their intention. And if it was, as
you said, Danny, they could have done a lot more.
You don't have to you don't have to be so targeted. Yeah, it certainly they knew where the the troops that who fled the uh fifth fleet in Bahrain and
started staying in the hotels or the same in the UAE started staying in the They knew where those hotels were. They could have easily but then, you know, you put you might
put uh you know, the migrant workers in the UAE and Bahrain, the Arab population, whatever, you know, at risk.
And so yeah, turns out that the resistance is thinking a little bit more about morals and principles. Shocker than Yeah, they're much more circumspect.
They're much more circumspect all the way around. And the US is not. Israel certainly is not.
Um let's not forget that Trump said it was going to end their civilization.
I mean, that's not an empty threat. It's not an empty threat because they already sort of begun doing that or attempted to do that. Uh you saw those black clouds
over Tan when they were targeting uh oil storage facilities in a in a city with a population of 12 million or 15 million
and and all the health effects generational health effects that are going people are going to experience from that. Do do these people care in
America about that? They care about all the pregnant women that might have had miscarriages because of that or all the poison
drinking water and all the children that are going to be uh chronically ill going into the future uh because of that. Do they really care?
You know, so yeah. Yeah.
Well, uh thanks to those who gave super chats. Uh this is an interesting question, Patrick. Do you have a 60-cond explainer of how the United States
started the war in Ukraine? Ask if we have videos. I mean, you could watch both of our coverage of this over the over the course of years, but uh uh
I'll give you 60 I'll give you . Um the United States backed a violent coup in Kiev in the Maidan in
February of 2014 uh with the expressed intent of regime change. And that that
basically triggered a violent civil war of eight years um whereby the United States encouraged uh Perishenko and then
Zilinski after him to deploy their army to attack and kill their own people in the Donbass Ukrainians Ukrainian
nationals who spoke Russian. Okay. And eight 14,000 people were killed as they were shelling civilians in Donbass. And
that went on for eight years. Russia basically said this has to stop. They did a UN resolution. A security council was unanimously passed to do the Minkx
Accords and the Germans and the French intentionally sandbagged it as did Porhenko and Zalinski to buy time for
NATO to arm up the Ukrainians for a bigger war against Russia. So it was all by design 100%. And I just giving you
like 1% of that story there. But that's what you need to know. And Russia said, "If the UN Security Resolution fails,
220 for the Minkx peace process, if it fails, we will have no choice but to intervene probably." And guess what?
They did. So the Europeans and the Americans intentionally sabotaged the UN Security Council peace resolution.
Intentionally sabotaged it. They're on record. Angela Merkel, Francois, Holland, Porenko, and Zalinsky. four
people admitted it on record. So, this isn't a conspiracy theory. That's what happened. And Russia did exactly what it said it's going to do. Do a humanitarian
intervention to protect their people uh in Eastern Ukraine. And then Europe and the West, all holy murder. Oh my god,
this injustice must not stand. This aggression by Putin, it came out of nowhere. He woke up one day and decided he was going to take over Ukraine. And
if we let him take over Ukraine, he's going to roll all the way to the English Channel. Yeah.
In a nutshell, that's the just that's the narrative right there.
Yeah. No, great summary. Uh everybody, thanks so much for joining today. I want to make sure everyone knows that 21st Century Wire uh what uh the what Patrick
leads the uh great outlet is in the video description below the YouTube channel. So, be sure to subscribe there and support it as well as Patrick's
Substack. Patrick, any final words before we head out of here today?
Uh, no, no, uh, not not at all. Um, I will say, um, uh, thank you very much, Danny, for the,
uh, invitation, the conversation. Um, keep an eye on the, uh, economy. That's what I'll tell people. Really, keep an eye on the economy. Close eye.
Yeah, definitely. All right, everybody.
Thanks for the super chats. Thanks to all the moderators who moderated. Thanks all the viewers, of course, who viewed.
Uh, as you leave here, be sure to hit the like button. Uh, that helps boost the show and YouTube's algorithm. And I'll be back tomorrow with friend
Muhammad Mandi, uh, 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. See you then.

Trump BLEW IT! US Air Force ATTACKS Iran – Ceasefire OVER | Mohammad Marandi
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 2 hours ago #iran #trump #iranwar

Mohammad Marandi joins the show to discuss the US conducting airstrikes on Iran overnight and Iran's retaliation, signaling a rapid end to the MoU ceasefire. Prof. Marandi addresses these in context of major criticisms on Iran amid fallout in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz.



Transcript

Welcome to the show everyone. Danny Haiphong here. First, some news. As you can see, I'm joined by Professor Muhammad Mandi overnight. Uh the United States
struck Iran in the uh area of Surik near the straight of Hormuz. Multiple areas were hit. Sentcom published this video
as quote unquote evidence of their strike. uh and Iran has said that they have retaliated and Bahrain announced
earlier this morning that a drone attack occurred in the early hours in retaliation by Iran. Of course, this all
comes as tensions in the street of Hormuz are rising. The United States JD Vance has said that there is going to be
violence for violence if uh attacks in the straight of Hormuz continues. As you can see, I am joined by First Muhammad Randi to discuss all of this and more.
First, Randy, good to see you again.
Hi Danny, thank you very much for inviting me. It's always a great pleasure being with you.
Of course, hit the like button everyone as we get started. So, yes, Russ, your reactions to the uh developments. This is the first strike since the memorandum
of understanding began uh or was signed by both parties. Now it seems like Iran is considering suspending it alto together after this act of aggression.
Your reaction and what it uh means for the overall trajectory of this war.
Well, the Americans are violating theou as expected. The Iranians never believe
that the United States had any intention of voluntarily uh carrying out its commitments. But um
the Iranians in return for all US violations are to uh
make it more difficult for the United States uh in the state of Hormos and uh
the Americans have violated its commitments to the situation in Lebanon.
Uh the Israeli regime continues to occupy uh enormous parts of southern Lebanon and to carry out strikes
uh all of that must come to an end in accordance with the deal. That's the first article inou
the United States has been trying to undermine Iran's uh authority in the uh straight of uh by forcing Oman to
declare an open corridor. Uh that's another violation. The US constant threats against Iran. Trump again during
the negotiations spoke of killing murdering the negotiators and destroying Iran and threatened the president. All of these are violations. So the United
States violates the deal on all fronts including releasing Iranian uh assets. That's also been something that's slow.
It's of course what Trump said about Iran's assets that are to be released are not true about purchasing American
agricultural products. uh and not having control over their assets. But in any case, the United States is in violation.
So the Iranians warned these ships not to go through. One ship uh ignored Iran's
authorities, military authority, and the Iranian and that ship was struck. Iran did not of course take any responsibility,
but it's obvious where what happened. So um the Americans struck last night. It wasn't a very important strike. They hit
uh I think a u a a tower which is made in Iran. They just produce they'll
replace it. The Iranians retaliated by striking uh Bahrain. And again today another ship was struck sending another
message that uh uh only uh the Iranian declared corridor is acceptable. Some
ships do go through. They they smaller ships. They cling to the Omani shore.
They go from uh the Emirates to the alongside very close to the Omani shore and then go to the Fuja port, but
they're small ships and then they transport their goods to bigger ships to like bigger big tankers and then a
number of them have to go through to um to fill up a tanker. So some do go through and it seems that the Iranians
are uh tolerating that but uh for the most part the number of ships that have gone that go back and forth are down uh
they're not near as much as they were before the war and that's because of US uh inaction with regards to the United
States if they carry out their commitments the Iranians will carry out theirs. If the United States doesn't the Iranians won't either. If the United
States does goes halfway, then the Iranians are going to go halfway. Every uh the difference between the situation
now and before is that the Iranians in in previous agreements with the United States is that this time around the Iranians are not going to carry out or
fulfill their obligations and carry out their commitments unless the Americans do.
Well, I want to pull up now the Iranian military uh announcement after
the attacks on Sirk. Uh because I think one thing that I find interesting is that Iran says that their naval and air
forces were able to thwart and foil the attack and force the attacking forces to retreat, preserving Iranian sovereignty
over land, its land and its waters. So I'm wondering professor Randi does Iran even view these attacks as very
significant if they are having the cap like in terms of um you know the the damage and the proportionality of it how
they respond uh given that they say that they were able to thwart it. I assume that means air defenses and other means
and methods to ensure the attack was very short-lived by the United States. But your your thoughts on this?
I don't know the details, but what I do know is that nothing of importance was struck and whether that's because it was
sorted or the Americans didn't intend to do much or a combination of both, I don't know. But um the Iran the the
Iranian response uh I I would imagine was probably a bit more heavy-handed
than the US strike because that's how Iran has been doing things during the last month or so. Uh over the last
month, every time the United States violates the ceasefire, Iranians hit harder in response. In the past, it was
proportionate, but uh in pre previous ceasefire violations, but now it's been different. So, I would imagine that the
Iranians hit a bit harder, but I don't know exactly what the Iranians have done.
You know, according to NBC News and other uh sources, it's being reported that the Trump administration timed this
attack to align with the closing of the markets in the United States. And we are
seeing constantly whenever this has happened, we saw this before theou was signed when Iran and the United States were going back and forth. the US would
attack, Iran would strike back uh also around the straight of Hormuz area. Uh we would see very little come out and then of course Sencom publishes the
video I put up which shows shows very little. I I mean Sensecom it's it's unclassified information but it simply just shows plumes of smoke coming out.
You know it doesn't show any much detail. What do you make of this? It feels like this war has only become more
8 minutesand more censored especially by uh the US side.
Well, I think uh this war has been unique that we only discovered uh the immense amount of damage after the war.
I mean, everything that the Iranians said turned out to be true. It if you recall, after General Solommani was
murdered, the Iranians carried out a missile strike on a US base in northern Iraq and did a lot of damage, but it
really wasn't reported back then. And only later did we find out that there was really heavy damage done and uh that there were significant casualties.
But um this time around it's been the entire war is has been uh
full of uh hidden the US military either lying or hiding
facts. And um and the Iranians have been much more accurate in in reporting on
what what was going on uh inside the country than the Americans reporting on what was going on inside their military bases.
Yeah. And here's a report uh that uh the United States, the Pentagon delayed publicly notifying or announcing the
strikes on Iran until after the stock market closed 400 p.m. Eastern time on Friday to reduce the immediate impact on
the markets. And that seems to be a big concern here where you have uh the oil
uh price of oil going down after the memorandum of understanding yet still a lot of concern about managing the
situation. The United States came out right after these strikes and said this does not torpedo the memorandum of understanding for them. This is not a
return to war. But a ceasefire violation is a ceasefire violation. Uh, Professor Mandi, uh, in all intents of purposes,
when the US attacked Iran, the ceasefire is completely broken. No. And not to mention the situation in Lebanon, which is only getting worse after this
so-called agreement that the so-called government uh, that is being protested heavily in the streets of Beirut right
now, uh, decided to engage with and agree upon with the US and Israel. Your thoughts?
Oh, yes. The United States is violating the ceasefire on uh on multiple accounts and the the so-called agreement in
Lebanon which was signed by the government which is a proxy government.
The the president and the prime minister were installed by the Americans. No one should think that they were chosen by
the uh politicians who were elected. the Americans impose them on the country and
they've been carrying out u policies that have been dictated to them by the
Americans uh just like the government in Syria. Uh and so there this the the agreement between this government and
Lebanon first of all they're the very fact that they negotiate with the Israelis is is a violation of Lebanese law.
uh but uh their negotiations were a huge cap capitulation because there's the the Israeli regime is isolated across the
world now countries everyone despises the regime even Trump admits this and then at a time when it's becoming
isolated the only country that moves in the opposite direction and strengthens and builds ties with the Israeli regime
not just strengthens ties builds ties with the regime is the Lebanese government and instead of first getting concessions just to sit down with them
because they should make huge demands saying look we this is this is going to cost us immensely and you need us to
negotiate with you to be seen as to be acknowledged as you know legitimate supposedly um you have you have to give
us Lebanese the Lebanese concessions nothing they they did this for free And
what did they get in return? A day or two later, uh a uh a lieutenant general and in a in a convoy of the Lebanese army and his companions were murdered.
So the more you uh appease Zionism, the more aggressive Z the Zionists become.
So this capitulation by the Lebanese president and prime minister and uh and this gifting of southern Lebanon to the
Israeli regime because the Israelis have no intention of ever leaving and these people know it. Uh this is a huge
betrayal of the country. It's it's treason to if if anyone looks at it objectively reminds me of 19th century
18th century imperialism. But um um it is a violation of the agreement
13 minuteswith Iranou because in accordance with the Israeli regime has to leave Lebanese sovereignty has to be accepted and the
world war has to come to an end. So this agreement was an attempt to undermine theou but Iran is not going to accept
that. Iran doesn't he doesn't care if the Lebanese prime minister and the president sell off their parents. Uh for
the only thing that is important for Iran is that the Americans have to carry out article one of theou and until that
happens there won't be normalization in the Persian Gulf. And that's the, you know, the that's that's literally why
the United States ultimately had to accept so many of Iran's conditions because Iran controls the straight of Formos.
With this deal though, President, you said it uh very poignantly that this is a direct violation and an intentional
violation of the memorandum of understanding. Do you find that one of the key parts of this is to try to
plunge Lebanon into such instability that it is very difficult and complicated for Iran then to get
involved as they said they would if there were violations of this clause because it's not Iran has already shown
that it will strike Israel for engaging in aggression uh against Lebanon. But uh
if there is a civil war scenario, if there's a scenario where you have the government against the people, the government against Hezbollah, which in
many cases this agreement is really an anti-Hzbollah uh recognized Israel agreement, uh that
that makes things far more complicated, doesn't it?
Hezbollah is very smart. They're very wise. And there have been many occasions in the past where uh enemies of Lebanon
pushed the country towards civil war and Hezbollah refrained from going there.
And the current leader of Hezbollah, the secretary general has shown himself to be very very wise and very smart. And he's managed the organization very well.
And on the battlefield, they've also performed very well over the past two three months.
Uh the plan is civil war. That's what the Israeli regime wants. They talk about it all the time and that's
obviously a US polit that's what the US wants to see as well. At least at least they want to see
uh the resistance destroyed and the Israeli hijgemony over Lebanon assured
and have no doubt that if the Israeli regime gets its way, they'll take the whole of Lebanon. the collaborators right now uh in Lebanon, you know, the
wealthy collaborators, if Lebanon were to to fall ultimately one day, they'll go to their mansions
and palaces in uh southern France or in uh Florida or wherever they have their
they've they've hidden their wealth. But ordinary people will will be refugees.
They'll be like it'll be like the West Bank or Gaza or all those other places where the Israeli regime takes land and
uh and and kills it the natives living there. So while the Americans are trying to use
their proxies in Syria u against Hezbollah to some effect because right now they are shutting the border to
prevent Iran from smuggling aid to the resistance from from that part of the country. Um but Syria the Syrian regime is in no position to attack Lebanon.
It's it's a broken regime. It's it's comprised of all these different terrorist groups and uh the government
is busy killing factions within these organizations or people within these factions that were don't agree with
them. Uh and they're also killing minorities uh especially on the coast nowadays again. But they don't have the
power to go into Lebanon. And if they do, the Iranians will uh if the Iranians can defeat the Americans with missiles
and drones, it's not going to be a problem defeating the Syrian regime. Um and of course the Iraqi resistance would
resistance would intervene too. Uh so Syria isn't that much of a problem in Lebanon. The army of Lebanon,
half of them at least are sympathetic to the resistance. at least because uh the majority of Lebanese don't support this
policy and they know that the president and the prime minister do not have popular mandate and uh they everyone
knows the intentions of the Israeli regime. So the majority are not with this. I mean there are those who are anti- Hezbollah like the sort of ISIS
18 minutesal-Qaeda type that are funded by Katar and and Erdogan and and and these others
in the in the Persian Gulf and of course the the the u the the fascists like the
Lebanese forces and others who are funded by the West and NOS's and Western embassies and Western intelligence
agencies. these these will uh these are of course they they support all of this because of their hatred towards the
resistance but most Lebanese don't accept that. So I I don't think they can sec successfully carry out a civil war and Hezbollah is very careful.
Yeah. Well, let's um let me pull up this. This is uh JD Vance uh what he is saying and and I want your thoughts on
this. This is this is the narrative the United States is pushing out there after these strikes and after the Lebanon deal. Iran signed a ceasefire agreement.
We have honored it. If they have disagreements about how theou is being applied, they can pick up the phone, but violence will be met with violence. Uh
for Randi, uh the United States has honored the ceasefire agreement, they said, but yet at the same time lost the
definition, it seems of what ceasefire is.
Oh yes. I mean in uh first of all they've been violating uh the ceasefire
during this whole la the last two months they've u they on many many occasions as
you and I have discussed in the past they've bombed Iranian islands the Iranian mainland uh and and on and on every occasion the
Iranians retaliated and of course in Lebanon you see you we saw saw genocide
unfold and ethnic cleansing and and mass slaughter and mass and systematic destruction. That wasn't a problem for
20 minuteshim. And as we speak, it is going on in Gaza, too. The Holocaust there continues. And uh that is also part of
the agreement. Gaza isn't named, but it's it says a regional end to this violence. So the Americans are violating
the as I said earlier the the uhou at multiple le levels and they they have I
mean they they started this war uh they waged war against the Iranian people unprovoked illegal. So for them to talk
about Iran violating the ceasefire that's uh that's a bit too much. Iran warned a ship not to travel without
coordinating with Iran through the straight of Hormos. that is not a violation of the ceasefire and that ship uh refused to
uh abide by uh orders from the navy and it was hit. So and so that Iran did not
strike us the United States for the United States to strike Iran.
21 minutesNow, the United States military is saying that they are ready to provide $30 million,
which to a trillion dollar albatross is a drop in the bucket. But nonetheless, they are saying that they want to
provide this to the Lebanese armed forces. and Professor Morandi, I don't really know what this means because the
United States uh ultimately uh if they're going to change the calculation here, which is they they're going to
have to provide some massive support. I don't know what $30 million will buy for the Libyan armed forces. But ultimately, all of this is geared toward what they
say is to disarm Hezbollah, which again is is is only inciting more conflict and
therefore in violation of theou. It's it's this circle that goes around and around and around.
Yes, of course. this this support for the army. They always say that we support the Lebanese army not so that it could defend the country but so that it
could attack Hezbollah. They they they say it all the time. So this this uh is
about uh supporting the president and the prime minister in pushing the
country towards civil war. But again, I find it difficult to imagine that it actually happens and if it does that it
succeeds because um Hezbollah has massive support in the armed forces and the armed forces
would collapse and Hezbollah is a very powerful and competent military force
and they have huge popular support and most people as I said don't support this policy of capitulation to the Israeli regime.
and the gifting of Lebanese territory to Israel because it's obvious that this regime is not going to back down. So
Iran is going to ignore all this. Iran is going says that we have anou. You want us to normalize trade through the
straight of hormones. You have to carry out article one. It's as simple as that.
And until that happens, there's not going to be an agreement and there's not going to be normalization uh in in the trade of hormones. So the United States has to make a decision.
They can do all they want, do make all the agreements what they want with the Israeli regime, but the pressure is going to continue to build. The economic
pressure more ships are are moving through this trade than they were uh 3 4
weeks ago. But uh the shortages uh across the world continue to grow at a slower pace, but they continue to grow.
And uh therefore, the United States is by no means out of the woods. Iran knows that. And until Article One is
implemented, that's how it's going to be.
So what Iran and I should just add this what Iran is pushing and what it has been pushing for the last almost four
months now is that it's trying is trying to drive a wedge between the United States and the Israeli regime trying to push the United States towards economic
crisis so that h so that it ultimately has to prioritize its own interests over that of the Israeli regime because it's
always Israel first and now the Israelis want one thing but and but the Americans see that if they continue if they follow
the uh Israeli regime's lead that it will be devastating for their own uh economy. That's why they signed theou in
the first place. That's why they gave all those concessions to Iran. They didn't do it willingly. And the Iranians know quite well that the even after they
signed it theou there was no intention by the Americans to carry it out as we've as we discussed earlier they've always they've been constantly trying to
undermine the uhou but the Iranians are going to remain steadfast and they will make sure that until all of its demands
are met some have been met the US has lifted the siege a disproportionate amount of the oil
that's been exported from the Persian Gulf during the last since the signing of the agreement ofou has been Iranian
oil, huge amounts of Iranian oil. So Iran has been able to make up for a lot of u lost
exports, but uh so they've lifted the siege, they've lifted the sanctions on Iranian the Iranian energy sector
officially at least. Well, I I don't know if it's being actually implemented.
uh they've spoken about releasing Iranian assets. I don't know how far that's gone, but they clearly have not implemented the deal and uh and of
course the issue of Lebanon is the first article and until that happens until it happens there won't be an agreement and
so the trade through the straight of hormones is going to continue to be uh much less than it should be.
Well, person Randy, I think it's a good time now to ask you about some narratives I've noticed as these strikes
have these strikes have reemerged and as theou uh builds on days and now weeks of uh
its signing. There's many more people the commentariat all over social media those reporting news maybe exploiting
some news uh all talking about Iran losing its leverage even by uh mildly
opening the straight of Hormuz and engaging in these talks and now with all the evidence of course that the United
States is not going to be a part a good faith party to it as well as of course Israel's transgressions that uh staying
in this and allowing it to go on in the same way it is going is tantamount to losing this leverage. What do you make
of that? It's an argument I'm I'm hearing and I'm seeing come up as the days and weeks go by of the United
States and Iran I guess sort of negotiating but not really. But at the same time, this is a big statement and I'm curious on your thoughts about it.
Well, in Iran also there's this ongoing debate between those who support theou as it is and those who say that Iran has
been too lenient and uh the leader he made a comment on theou which has
broadened that debate even though his comment uh is not exactly I mean he
doesn't ex explain he does point out that he's critical of the deal but He he he says he he gave the uh Supreme
National Security Council and the government a mandate to carry it out, but he was he was obvious he was critical of it, but he doesn't explain
how he's critical. And that of course is discussed has been discussed behind closed doors and I'm not uh privy to
that sort of knowledge of uh what exactly what he what did he want that was not in the agreement uh but uh he
was critical but some people in the country have taken this as like uh uh that the state is is
capitulated and this is completely against what he wants. that is not necessarily the case. Um although there
I I agree that there are criticisms of the deal. I think th both who those who support the deal they have good
arguments to make and those who are critical of the deal have good arguments to make. Uh but I don't agree with either side completely and that that's
uh usually how it is for me because I'm not on any political side and I've been accused by different factions of always
being being affiliated to the other side with the the JCPOA. Some people have called me a staunch supporter of the nuclear deal. I never supported the
nuclear deal and uh they would say I'm allied to those groups. And then um and
then supporters of the nuclear deal, those hardcore supporters would say I'm one of the hardcore opponents of the nuclear deal. I was never a hardcore opponent of the nuclear deal. I just
would say their problems with it, you know, there their shortcomings, but uh but you know, I'm not in either any of
these political camps. What I think is fair to say is that those who there are those who
who uh would like to see Iran la fire missiles and to keep the straight of hormones
shut and uh that is it's not the the world is not as simple as that. I mean
uh first of all Iran never closed the straight of Hormos. it was never fully closed. And uh there are countries that
are friendly to Iran and axis of resistance that use the trade of hormones and if we shut them out and shut them down then maybe their politics would change. So um that's one issue.
The second is that Iran is uh itself uh it was being targeted through the siege
uh and its own exports and imports imports were being blocked and uh the
Iranian people the the you know right now inflation is uh very high. It's roughly I think something like 68% or
70%. That's very high. Of course, inflation in Iran has always been high because of the maximum pressure sanctions. Uh and the the government
constantly adjusts the the u uh people's wages, government employee wages, the minimum wage and all that, but it's it's
not easy. And now it's it's more difficult. So for people to expect uh for anyone to expect
the state not to take into consideration the reality of the economic life of ordinary people. I think that's um
they're being that's being too naive uh that or or they're being too simplistic.
Uh the government ha you know the government u has to function. People have to have jobs. They have to have,
you know, food there. Every supplies have to exist. And so Iran uses the straight of hormones, too. Uh Iran was
tough. They outlasted the Americans in siege warfare. They compensated to a large degree by using uh their
neighboring countries to import goods to export what they could, but it was it was it made life much more difficult. So Iran has been using this deal to export.
Um, but also the Iranians continue to enforce uh to put pressure on the United States through limiting
uh the uh the number of ships that can pass through the straight of Hormos. And that's how the Iranian if it wasn't if
if the Iranians didn't have that sort of leverage, the Americans wouldn't have lifted the siege. If Iran didn't have that leverage, the Americans wouldn't
have conceded uh to accepting the sovereignty of Lebanon and so on and and to ending the war across the region.
And so on the one hand, you have to keep this in mind that Iran has friends, countries like China and other countries
that uh import from and and export to the region, but import from the region.
Uh they can't just ignore them. uh they are friends of Iran and um and as I said
the Iranians themselves have to uh continue to keep the running the the uh
economy afloat uh in order to be able to resist in order to help the resistance
in Lebanon in order to help it's not you know this they get support from Iran with we all know that uh in order to
help uh Yemen protect itself in order to help Gaza. It's not as if the resistance in Gaza does not receives, you know,
support from thin air. It comes it it comes from somewhere. So, developing those tunnels and put defense uh
capabilities against further Israeli aggression, all of this costs money. So, uh at the negotiating table, the the
United States conceded a lot. Is this an ideal situation? Definitely not. Am I a fan of this agreement? No. But in
general, you know, what I what I try to do is not to take sides because when I'm speaking to yourself and others, I'm
trying to defend what I think is the people on the right side of history, those who are doing the right thing. And I believe that Iran in the axis of his of of resistance has been doing that.
And so if I don't agree with a particular thing that the president said or a position taken by the chief
negotiator or a critic of the president or a critic of the chief negotiator, if I don't take a position on that, I think it's because it's not my responsibility.
I don't think people outside of Iran uh really care too much about the the details to that degree as a you know for
their uh you know what what is important is the fundamental differences that are taking
place that exist between Iran, the United States, the Israeli regime. And then then once that what once that is
established we can go into the details about uh what's going on in Iran. Why is one one one set of what one set of
people opposed to the deal? I mean and why are some supporting the deal? But let me give you a personal example on
campus. This was not so long ago. I was speaking with two of two of my students or two students. They're not my students
but two students who came to my office and then a colleague came and said that
um uh you know you you need to do a deal as if I'm a negotiator you need to do a deal the economic situation is difficult
and uh you have to you know don't be so uh don't be so harsh and try to you know
find some solution with Americans. I I said, "Look, I I'm not a negotiator. I I I'm not a decision maker." And he he
left. And then literally later, I don't know, an hour later or later, uh another colleague and
those those two students were still in the room talking about something completely different, just university stuff. And then uh
this professor was saying, "Why are you conceding so much? why the Americans if if you keep going down this path, the
Americans are going to give nothing and then we're going to they're going to come back for more war.
And again, I said that look, I'm not a negotiator. I'm not a decision maker.
So, uh both, you know, different sides make these uh critiques uh and assume
that I'm involved. But I think that on the whole while there are problems with this uh uh
with this agreement no doubt uh that uh the there are calculations behind it and
Iran's most important um leverage
against the Israeli regime and its occupation in Lebanon because that's what a lot of people are worried about obviously is its ability to put pressure on the US
economy. I mean, Iran can lob a few missiles here and there and do damage, but the real pressure is when Iran
keeps the straight of hormones uh half closed.
That is what worries Trump and that's what he said explicitly.
Yeah. And uh I think you know ideological differences and debates I think those
are very much uh to be expected. But I do find it interesting that whenever
there is a pause in the fighting, I think the initial reaction for a lot of people who as you said want to see
missiles flying, uh they don't take it they don't take into consideration all these other factors as to why the missiles may have stopped flying and uh
they go immediately toward well this person's a traitor, this leader, this it it it feels almost like uh I don't love
to say these things, but it does feel like almost like a psychological operation, like it's trying to sew division.
I mean, you know, you know, phrase, I'm Yeah, this is a good point. I'm in I've lived in Lebanon and right here there's
a a picture of one of the marchers of Lebanon who was a a friend of my children and there's more than one in in
my house and of Iranian marchers who I knew. But um uh I've live I've lived there. I'm in
every day I'm in contact with people in Lebanon every single day.
And uh and a Lebanese uh uh media outlet, the Al-Madin, invites me
regularly to to to discuss the situation on on their shows on the on their on their TV channel.
Uh so but I hear like these people tell me online you see online and some people
send messages to me that Iran has betrayed Hezbollah but Hezbollah does not believe that Iran has betrayed it. So these people who are
constantly putting out tweets saying how and they attack me online too. They say oh you've betrayed them. Look are you are you happy? Every time they kill
innocent civilians in Lebanon during the past few days, ever since the ceasefire, ever since was signed, they say, "Are you happy now that they're slaughtering
the Lebanese? I mean, it just for some, I don't know, some money from the United States." As if I'm a negotiator, you know, just so that the United States would hand over money, you you've sold
Lebanon. But that's not how Hezbollah sees it. That's not how the secretary general of Hezbollah sees it. He's he
said he's very happy with Iran's position. That's not what the uh the the uh the council of Hezbollah that rules
Hezbollah sees it. That's not how their media says it. That's not how that's not how the people who I know in Hezbollah or those who are close to Hezbollah or
the resistance see it. But these people who've never been to Lebanon uh uh and uh you know they they see it as a
betrayal. The point is that it was largely it was because Iran threatened to to fire missiles at the Israeli
regime that the United States accepted uh article one meaning the sovereignty of Lebanon. It was because so if Iran
had fired those missiles then the United States after Iran had fired maybe the United States would then say okay now that you fired those missiles uh I'm not
going to uh accept that article not going to. So sometimes by refraining from doing something you get concessions. Now someone may argue well
the Americans are not going to carry it out. Of course they're not going to do so willingly. They support genocide.
Look at Gaza. Look at Lebanon for the last 2 and 1/2 years more than two and a half years. But Iran has leverage. What
is that leverage? It's the straight of hormones. It may not be so exciting. You know, you don't see these missiles fly flying through the air and it may be
slower in its impact, but the impact is very real. I mean, for Trump to say the comp
41 minutesto be worried about becoming another Hen uh another Hoover, President Hoover, and for Trump to say openly that we only
have four more weeks of uh of energy supplies, that's saying a lot. And that's that shows that the rate of hormones is important.
Yeah. And back to your point that uh a lot of the now uh recover recovering
shortfall of that oil uh that was being blocked is Iranian oil. Um and and
that's interesting. I think that's I think some people have to acknowledge that while you may not love everything about this and it doesn't fit in some
maybe like streamline perfect ideal that is uh always going to be a fantasy because there's so many factors that uh
go into even victory. Uh uh the fact of the matter is is that Iranian oil right
now is playing a big role in alleviating this uh shortfall because there are still so many ships stuck in the street
of Hermuz that aren't following the designated route and won't be able to follow it because it's such a big backlog. I mean it it it this is reminds
me of like weapons to Taiwan. The US keeps sending weapons to Taiwan. Taiwan can't use them. They can't train with them. They don't have the military class
that have them. So they just keep piling up. It's like a big IOU. They keep p there's no they don't use them. But this is what happens when you wage war the
way the United States does. It has it has consequences. And I want your comment on this professor Randi. You know, you mentioned those assets before.
It feels like every time the United States, and this is I think going to be a big problem for this uh ceasefire or
or maybe lack thereof agreement in that every time the United States says they're going to concede like the frozen
assets, then they say they're going to control the whole process that they're going to dictate where the this money
goes. This is Iranian money frozen in accounts that were that illegally did so
uh in places like Qatar. And yet the United States is now saying they're going to control where these funds end
up going. It reminds me of Venezuela after that uh horrific kidnapping of Maduro. Uh immediately they said, "Now
we're going to control exactly where Venezuelan oil flows." Your thoughts on this?
Yes. Then again, while I, as I said, I'm not a I think that there are flaws in this agreement. And personally, if I was
involved, well, I would have probably uh made I would have insisted on a
couple of things being different from what they are, especially with regards to the Well, anyway, uh since I'm not a negotiator, I don't want to go there.
But um but another thing is that some of these people who are now constantly
44 minutessaying speaking of betrayal uh then now they begin to believe everything that Trump says and the entire world says Trump is a serial liar. But these people
apparently when it comes to Iran they believe so believe all that he says. So when Trump says all this money is going to go to American farmers, these people
basically say, "Oh, look, they betrayed uh the the you know the they betrayed the cause and they're they're they're
going to buy American goods." And then if Trump or for example when uh the the
Americans uh carry out the um they when they have that trilateral agreement between the Israelis and their proxies
in Beirut, they said, "Look, the Iran, you know, the theou was just a p a piece of paper and they they sold out." No,
that's not true. First of all, Iran did not accept the United States controlling uh its assets. Or for example, Trump
says we're going to see all the nuclear installations. And then they say, see, they've sold out there, too. No, the Iranians have not agreed uh for the IAA
inspectors to go to those sites that were bombed. uh IA IAA inspectors do go to sites and we've discussed this many
times before that are not uh that were not bombed like the nuclear reactor in
Busher there Russian staff working there or the Tehran experimental reactor that's uh uh for Iran that's never been
a problem during you know so their inspectors go there but to those the Iranians have not agreed to them visiting this the sites that were bombed
that's Iran did not speak to the chief negotiator. If the if theou
progresses and we reach a stage where uh everything is sorted out then in in you
know then yes ultimately when things normalize they normalize. Am I do I think that the uh negotiators everything
that they do is ideal? No. Do I think that the text is ideal? No. But it's not what we're being told by Trump. And but
suddenly some people seem to take everything that Trump says as fact. Uh and uh person who's known across the
world to be utterly dishonest. So uh I think some friends have to be patient.
But also um the the the Iran when Iran sells its oil
or when Iran wants its assets back those assets are used to strengthen Iran and thus the axis of resistance. Those are
concessions that are have been uh that Iran demands and Iran demands that sovereignty of Lebanon be restored. Is
this going to be resorted resolved overnight? No. Is it going to be resolved in a month from now? No. may not this agreement may ultimately
collapse or may be be extended in current form and some or in some other form for many months. I don't know what
will happen but uh uh Iran is not naive about the United States. But what is important right now is that um the
United States is in is facing difficulty not only the energy crisis but also the
uh the situation in Ukraine. uh the the war Europe is escalating against uh Russia and the Russians are ultimately
moving towards some sort of decision. Uh Trump is going to have great difficulty focusing on Iran and Russia and of
course China uh for a long period of time under these very difficult circumstances. He did not defeat Iran on the battlefield. if he comes back for
more and we know that their assets are in the region and they've they have enough assets to carry out a ground assault against Iran which we've
discussed before uh but in Iran is prepared for that Iran the United States won't win that war and it would lead to
a global economic catastrophe that would be far worse than the 1930s uh but uh that is a possibility but it
becomes increasingly more difficult for the United States to to uh to wage this
uh war with Iran um or this confrontation with Iran as the situation
in Ukraine heats up. So, um it's not as if the Americans can do this forever.
The pressure from Iran will continue. Uh and as I said, the the the straight of hormones is far more powerful than
missiles. Missiles do damage, but ultimately it was it was through those missiles and drones that Iran kept the straight of hormones under its control.
But the straight of hormones is the prize. So Iran will be able to put a lot of pressure on the United States. It
doesn't it's not uh it doesn't look so exciting, but it has its impact. That's as we all know. And as I said, the
situation in Ukraine is going to make it more difficult for the United States because the West right now is literally now waging war. They are they want to
strengthen the drone and missile capabilities of the Ukrainians to strike Russia further and Russia is going to have to uh make some important decisions
in the in the months ahead. I think Europe is not going to succeed. But in any case, uh the Iranians recognize that
the that the West is is is facing great difficulty on multiple fronts and that
strengthens Iran's hand. Um, and the Russians too. Many of my Russian friends who I'm also in regular contact say
that, you know, it's it's good. It would be good if the Iran the Russians uh dealt with NATO like the Iranians
dealt with these regimes in the region that collaborated with the Americans and the Israelis when they gave when they
allowed their air bases and and the military bases and their territories to be used against Iran. Iran punished them. And uh now the Russians are saying
well if you help the Ukrainians and you send them missiles and drones then you are complicit and now they're thinking
about targeting them. The logic is not the same exactly. I mean these countries in the Persian Gulf were directly involved in the war. They have uh they
were part of the war. Their territory was used against Iran. But the Russian logic is not without merit. the the
Europeans are hellbent on uh on killing Russians and helping the Ukrainians. And so the Russians are saying, "Well, if
you do that, then uh we'll take a page from the Iranian playbook and and perhaps strike
NATO countries that are, you know, those uh that have missile factories and drone factories to help."
So the point I'm making is that the weeks and months ahead are going to be very difficult for the west uh largely
because of their own policies and uh the Iranians are going to remain steadfast and and at during this time of grave
difficulty for the west economic and military and political and so on uh Iran is going to continue to insist that uh
and and that every page every sentence, every word in theou
is uh complied to it's it's it's uh it's carried out it's fulfilled
and uh to your point uh professor Mandi uh I think it's important that and part of the psychological apparation I
mentioned earlier is to divert attention away from what is happening especially for shows like this where audiences tend
to be in the United States in the It can be very uh romantic, alluring, attractive to speculate and claim to
know that what's going on inside of Iranian politics and leadership and all of this. It distracts away from the
actual crisis that the wargoing and the wararmongering parties are experiencing, especially the United States. So you
mentioned the economic side of this, you mentioned the geopolitical side of this where we have uh uh you know multiple fronts that are not going well for the
US. But then there's also the domestic side of this that is heating up as well.
This is Time magazine that summarized they summarized uh just a couple days ago what the Americans are thinking of the US Iran deal and some of these
numbers are quite staggering. So, a Reuters Ipsos poll says just 24% of people in the United States think the
war with Iran was worth the cost. Only 23% of respondents, including 50% of all Republican respondents, believe the US
is now in a stronger position than before the war started. Uh 35% now think the US is in a weaker position. And uh
to the uh issue of the deal, uh it doesn't get much better.
um uh 63% of people in the United States and Reuters Ipsos will think it is unlikely theou will lead to lasting
peace between the US and Iran. So all these numbers are very damning in the sense that not only is this war very unpopular, but people in the United
States are not convinced that this deal will resolve the problems that they're experiencing because of it. which means
that uh you know we're just a few months from midterm elections which are going to be a critical part of how the US
regime dictates and governs itself over the next uh several years and
um yeah it's we they don't have six months a year plus to correct that situation. So that's that's a major crisis.
Yeah, I have no doubt that these are things that the Iranians are calculating. The Iranians are looking at US elections. The Iranians are looking at Ukraine. The Iranians are there are
multiple things that they're looking at and calculating. And another accusation made is that the Iranians have sold out Gaza. Of course not. I mean, yeah.
Ayat was martyed because of Gaza. Say Hassan Nasah was martyed because of Gaza. The war waged against Iran was
because of Gaza. The the slaughter in Lebanon was because of Gaza. Everyone else is complicit. the governments in
Egypt and Turkey and Jordan and Persian Gulf and across the world. No one has waging war. No one has even sanction no
one has even uh cut off ties with the regime. Not a single country has cut off diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime.
Not a single country has cut off economic ties, some import gas, some uh trans.
Oh no. The first time the first the first error. Are you still there for us money? Uh, there we go.
So, you know, to say to make those accusations, this is my cell phone and someone called. So,
uh, all right. Maybe maybe start from where that person before that person called.
So, for people, sorry. Oh, what? What was I saying?
Oh, I said maybe start again from where you were before the person. No, but what was I saying?
Oh well that's completely has lost me too because the the distraction the it's okay continue wherever you want.
Yeah I was just saying that uh you know the the the war was waged on Iran because of Gaza though the the the war
against Hezbollah was because of Gaza and all these countries uh in the region none of them broke off ties with the Israeli regime. None of them uh broke
off political ties. None of them have broken off economic ties. some import gas, some transport uh oil, some export,
some export oil. They're all doing business. And then Iran is uh making the sacrifices and is making enormous
sacrifices and Yemen has made so many sacrifices and then to say that they they've sold out. The Iranians have told
uh Hamas, the political wing in their discussions that they will uh pursue the
issue of Gaza in in the negotiations and and Hamas is and and Palestine is a part
of theou though not named because the war is taking place in Lebanon. But uh but we
have to keep in mind that the ceasefire in Gaza was you know because whenever the Iranians say Gaza the Americans say well
we have a ceasefire and everyone's endorsed it Erdogan and Cece and the king of Jordan Abdullah and all these leaders from the region and beyond they
all went to Shamro and in Egypt and endorsed Trump ceasefire and praised him and and whitewashed his crimes and uh
and u And none of them have complained since. Even though well over a thousand people have been murdered since then.
Every day they're bombing the place and killing more people. Children, infants, school children every day. I don't see any of these governments say anything.
It's only Iran paying a price yet uh uh you know I think some people are attacking Iran because um in order to
cover up their own inaction. Al Jazzer Arabic did a show on Iran. Why is Iran like like why is it not including Gaza?
I mean what is what has Gatar done except to fund Kushner and Witoff and
Trump's Trump's sons and gift him an airplane and you know be a part of you give it air air base to the United
land to for the United States to bomb Yemen and Iran and Syria and so on. I mean who are they to talk about Iran?
But Al Jazzer does this in order to undermine the resistance in order to justify their own role as a proxy of the
United States in all wars too. It's it's not even just regionally which is it's every war. It's Ukraine. it, you
know, any any, you know, following the US line almost uh to the tea on so many critical questions and and ignoring
voices that are challenging it which do exist and are becoming more and more uh you know prominent that and I just want
to say one last thing because we only have about a minute left, but I wanted to say that um you know we just had in terms of that Russia uh possibly getting
inspiration from Iran and and how Iran conducted uh its response to the USIsraeli aggression.
Uh we're now still getting information about how bad this damage was uh that Iran inflicted on the US. And now the
United States, as I covered yesterday, is considering moving their installations either further uh uh west,
further away from the uh Iranian theater, as we might be able to call it,
and uh maybe even underground, which is which is which I think is astounding.
And so we already are having obviously the United States thinking about reducing legitimately reducing its presence not because they want to not
because of morals or principles or anything but just because they have to because of what Iran did. And I think that in of itself has to be considered
and and uh just understood better uh in order to not fall into this what I think is total folly which is um always
wanting to m uh uh impose maximal demands on Iran when in fact everybody
the resistance everybody who's paying attention especially the resistance knows that this is a long long long war where uh there's a lot of factors to
take into account But professor Morandi, your final thoughts as we head out.
Yeah, there's a long way to go and this is not over and it's not going to be finished through a few missiles and drones and uh everyone, you know, we and
we shouldn't be easily influenced by uh empire propaganda. We shouldn't, you
know, try to un you know uh unwittingly uh strengthen those narratives. Well, we should be more active, do our own bit.
each of us to uh expose the Israeli regime further. The United States has finally come out and said it's genocide.
We knew this for over two and a half years now, almost three years now. But in any case, we have to just keep
pushing and pushing and and uh and we're getting there. The Israeli regime has no legitimacy in the eyes of so many people
across the world. And now uh you know we saw what happened in New York and how uh
in in Jews voted against Zionists uh in in in New York so many and now the Jew
now the Jews of New York are anti-semite uh apparently from uh from what I'm reading uh it it just shows how you know
this is this awakening uh against Zionism just like Muslims do not accept
al-Qaeda and ISIS and the you know these techi groups uh we see increasingly Jews
uh being very open in their opposition to Zionism and Christians opposed to Zionism and u you know we
have to keep pushing everyone has to push and uh it's going to take a long time and it's going to be difficult and
there are going to be many ups and downs but we're going to get there.
Yeah. Yeah, and I want to thank uh everyone who viewed today. Uh put up the super chats. Thanks so much for those, everyone who moderated. And of course,
anyone who came here. Person's X account is in the video description below where you can find his uh work and all the interviews and everything else he is
doing. Uh hit that like button before you go. That helps boost the show and YouTube's algorithm. Tomorrow we have June 28th uh uh 1 p.m. Eastern time,
we'll have KJ No on the show. Versa Mirandi, uh any any uh words uh of goodbye to our audience as we head out of here?
No, just uh we should all pray for the people of Venezuela. Yeah.
And one of my friends uh they've been forced to leave their home because their home is it's not
clear if it's stable, if people can help them. I mean, we're sanctioned. We can't. we have you know
but um and we have a war going on but uh we should pray for them and if we can help in any way or form I think uh it would be good time to do so.
Yeah, we are seeing um despite what I believe is still a very strong uh
collective uh uh preparedness and readiness by the Venezuelan people, the sanctions have taken their toll and it is it is a brutal cost that they've paid
in this earthquake and and so or these earthquakes and their aftershocks. So definitely heed those words everyone.
Try to find an organization. Try to find people who are legitimately helping because the United States right now is looking to consolidate. Yeah. Not through the empire power.
Yeah. Be careful. They're trying to consolidate their influence in power over Venezuela through this uh disaster.
Capitalism, disaster imperialism is very much a thing. But nonetheless, heed those words and uh definitely uh give
them your thoughts and any support you can. All right, everybody. We're going to head out of

'Decisive response': IRGC strikes eight US military installations after renewed American attacks
Sunday, 28 June 2026 1:00 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 28 June 2026 1:02 AM ]
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/06/2 ... it-Bahrain

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it launched a large-scale missile and drone operation against eight US military installations in the region, describing the strikes as a "decisive response" to renewed American aggression against Iranian territory.

In a statement, the IRGC said its Navy and Aerospace Force jointly carried out the operation between "2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. on Sunday (local time)," targeting eight "key US military installations," including the "Ali Al Salem Airbase in Kuwait" and the "US Fifth Fleet headquarters at Salman Port in Bahrain."

The Corps said the operation involved ballistic missiles and drones and said the targeted facilities were destroyed.

According to the statement, the operation followed attacks carried out by the enemy against five Iranian coastal outposts earlier in the day.

"The aggressor enemy, whose very nature is characterized by breaking commitments and violating agreements, attacked five coastal outposts of the Islamic Republic in the early hours of today under the pretext of responding to the IRGC Navy's confronting a trespassing vessel [in the Strait of Hormuz]," the statement read.

Warning over Strait of Hormuz enforcement

The IRGC said maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz falls under Iran's responsibility pursuant to a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding that was recently signed between Iran and the United States.

It added, "Henceforth, vessels found to be in violation will be dealt with more firmly than before."

The statement also warned that "any future aggression by the enemy, regardless of the pretext and even if, as last night and tonight, it targets objectives deemed to be of minor importance, will be met with a crushing response."

The IRGC further said, "The enemy should understand that violating the ceasefire constitutes a breach of Clause One of the Islamabad understanding and will result in the complete suspension of all related processes."

The statement followed an announcement by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) that it had staged new aggression against targets inside Iran.

Press TV
@PressTV
US CENTCOM reports renewing aggression against Iran
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/06/2 ... an-CENTCOM
US CENTCOM reports renewing aggression against Iran
5:00 PM · Jun 27, 2026

CENTCOM claimed the strikes were carried out in response to the targeting of a commercial oil tanker.

Shortly after the announcement, Iran's state broadcaster IRIB, citing an informed military source, reported explosions in Sirik County in the southern province of Hormozgan.

According to the source, "The explosions that were heard were caused by several projectiles striking a telecommunications tower near the village of Tahrouyi in Sirik."

Residents also reported hearing several explosions on Qeshm Island, although the exact locations and causes had not been determined, according to the report.

The renewed exchange followed an incident on Friday in which the IRGC Navy fired warning shots at a vessel that had ignored warnings against using an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz.

CENTCOM subsequently reported strikes against military targets in Iran.

The IRGC later announced retaliatory strikes against American military targets in the region.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/06/2 ... ted-States
IRGC Navy strikes US military targets in retaliation for attack on Iranian coastal areas

"And it (the United States) has now received the necessary response," the force said at the time, adding, "The same will apply to any future violations." "Should this aggression be repeated, our response will be broader than this."

American forces have repeatedly violated a ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump on April 7 during the latest round of unprovoked US-Israeli military aggression against Iran.

Iran responded to the unwarranted aggression with at least 100 retaliatory strikes and continued to respond to subsequent ceasefire violations.

https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/2070663817827143808

Sold-out Lebanese authorities have given the green light to Israel to extend its invasion of the country’s south, validating its ethnic cleansing of Shia citizens

Behind them is Rubio, a pet project of the Israel lobby, delivering a hammer blow to the MOU, and shivving JD Vance
Quote
Breaking911
@Breaking911
Jun 26
BREAKING: Sec. Marco Rubio on Israel-Lebanon Peace Framework: "It's the beginning of the beginning. There is a lot of work ahead."

Iran RAINS MISSILES on EIGHT US Bases as Trump's Attack BACKFIRES | KJ Noh
Danny Haiphong
Jun 28, 2026

Geopolitical analyst KJ Noah discusses the launching of renewed war between the US and Iran, as the two trade massive strikes overnight.

The Memorandum of Misunderstanding
Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris
Jun 28, 2026

About ten days have passed since the Trump regime and the Iranian government signed a "Memorandum of Understanding".

In that brief time, the U.S. and Israel have violated the agreement in every imaginable way.

It's now beyond rational dispute that they never intended to comply with this agreement, and that their war on Iran is far from over.