Transcription
First guest is the oracle himself, Sed professor, Muhammad Mandi, professor of English literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran, who's helped us through many a crisis and explained it better than anyone else on the planet. And we welcome him back. Professor Morandi, welcome uh back uh to you.
Let me let me start with Iraq if I may. Uh all kinds of speculation about what happened in Baghdad in the green zone last night certainly look pretty dramatic and some people have put two and two together and claimed that it was a coup and moreover a coup aimed at you. What do you think?
>> Well, George, thank you very much for inviting me. Uh I think that uh what the Americans have done over the past few decades to Iraq is uh clear to everyone. They supported Saddam Hussein and uh helped him wreck the country in an 8-year long war with Iran. Then they the US ambassador to Baghdad. She gave a green light of sorts for him to invade Kuwait, bringing about further destruction to the country. And then of course with the occupation of Iraq, the country was wrecked. And uh ever since uh uh this occupation, the Americans have never let go and they have lots of control over the government. They uh they have lots of uh people who work for them, lots of people who they've helped uh become wealthy and in return they've been carrying out their uh orders. And of course Iraqi oil, as you know, is controlled by the United States. Many people don't know this. All the oil that Iraq exports goes to a bank in the United States and the United States decides how much oil and when to give it to Iraq. And so it has enormous influence over the decision-making process in Iraq. The Iraqis, the elected parliament chooses a as their prime minister. The Americans say no, you can't have him and they have to compromise with the Americans. So this is the state of affairs in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Americans constantly uh claim that Iran has a uh is is a destructive influence in Iraq. Whereas Iran because of the US sanctions, Iran Iran gives Iraq electricity and it gives Iraq a gas, natural gas. But because of the US sanctions, Iraqis often don't pay Iran for years. But Iran never cut it off because the leader Ayat for the last few years, the marcher, he would say, "No, the Iraqi people need electricity. They need the gas because they'll if they have no electricity, people will suffer and you know how hot it is in Iraq during the summer." So the reality is that the United States has played a destructive role throughout and uh it's become very corrupt and many of these politicians I'm not I don't know if it's a coup or if there was an attempted coup or not yet but many of these key people the Americans allowed the them to become so influence in influential and so dangerous to the Iraqi people.
Well, it does seem that uh a large number of uh members of parliament uh and uh ministers even uh were effectively overthrown. They were uh taken into custody. It is true that there were American tanks on the streets of Baghdad for the first time in a very long time. So it does seem to be uh a significant uh development but there's no news of it uh even for someone who knows how to find news like me uh and uh even you don't know if uh there was uh a coup. But on the hypothetical that it was a coup, uh, you'd have to say that that increases the possibility that the Americans have in mind not reestablishing the ceasefire, but an actual ground invasion of Iran, and that must be of uh enormous importance to you.
>> There's no doubt that uh that is a possibility. The United States has brought in uh extra forces during the ceasefire. It has brought in a a huge amount of logistical equipment, lots of it for a ground offensive. But uh the Iranians are prepared. The Americans underestimated Iran, Iran's missile capabilities, drone capabilities, and lost the war. They haven't even yet tested Iran's uh ground uh troop capabilities. The Iranians, just like they prepared the the drones and missiles for for this war for the for over three decades, they've been preparing themselves for a ground offensive for three decades as well. This is not something that the Iranians did not anticipate. In fact, I may have said this on your show that during the war that the Iranians wanted the war to last longer and they wanted the Americans to carry out a ground offensive because they wanted to ultimately uh not because Iran loves war but because they wanted to punish the aggressor in a way in which it never would attack Iran again in the decades to come. So it is a possibility but but the resistance in Iraq is also very much alive and they the Americans have always underestimated the Americans and the Israeli regime. They underestimated Hezbollah. They underm underestimated Yemen and Ansar. They underestimated Iran and uh they underestimated the resistance in Iraq. I do not think that the Americans can invade Iran and if they want to use Iraqi territory and not suffer huge consequences at the hands of the Iraqi resistance, let alone uh the Iranian armed forces.
Let's turn to Iran then. Uh since we last spoke, indeed since I got on an airplane last night, uh the war has effectively begun again. Missiles are flying. Blood curdling threats on Truth Social have begun again. And I argue, I did in my monologue that uh last night's threat by by Trump marks the third obvious threat of nuclear war that he has made against Iran. I can see no other interpretation uh of his words. Uh, now some people might say, well, Trump's obviously going mad, but he is the commanderin-chief, and there's no reason to believe that if he made such an order that it wouldn't be uh carried out. So, we're back into highly unstable and dangerous territory, aren't we?
>> Oh, we've always been. And um you know George as I know you have always been skeptical with regards to US intentions andou. The Iranians are utterly skeptical. They never expected the United States to uh implement anything in the deal willingly. And the the difference with this agreement with the United States and past agreements is that the Iranians have their own leverage right now. Uh the Iranians I I should say to your audience that the Iranians are exporting huge amounts of of uh oil uh disproportionate to the other countries in the Persian. They were preparing themselves for this day. But the Americans are also trying to prevent uh the Israeli or they're cooperating with the Israeli regime to keep the occupation. they are holding back back on their um obligations with regards to Iranian assets um and uh and also with regards to the sanctions. Americans are not honest, but what the Iranians are doing right now is they're preparing themselves for the next round. uh they they the the oil that they're exporting, they're they know that they have to prepare themselves for a potential second war because this is we're dealing with the United States. We're not dealing with a a a country that is normal, that behaves normally. It's a country that threatens to annihilate other countries and you won't even hear journalists talk about it. Just like when they slaughter a hundred uh people a day in Lebanon, Western journalists and Western media, Western elites don't even talk about it. Or as we speak every day as they're slaughtering gazins and killing kids who are going to school for exams or shooting them in the head as they're in their tents at school. You don't even hear about it in the Western media. So Iran knows that there's no such thing as international law. There's no such thing as anou that will hold the US back. So Iran is using this opportunity basically to prepare itself for uh another another war potentially. Hopefully uh the United States will recognize that uh it this will only bring about a global economic crash worse far worse than the 1930s and that will prevent it from take making the ultimate miscalculation. But when it comes to adherence to international law agreements or morality, western elites, western regimes are the worst in the world.
But one thing that I wanted to just add to the previous response to the question to my response to the previous question George is that Ayatah the marty who I believe is the greatest martr of Palestine alongside say Hassan he his funeral will also be held in Iraq. In other words, he will be he will have a funeral in Iran, but he will also be taken to Iraq and there will be uh funerals held there and then he'll be returned to Iran. And I think people should keep their eyes on the streets of uh the cities where they they carry out his funeral. So that and I think it will be an important uh show of strength for the Americans to understand where the sentiments of the people lie and I I think it will be a very important moment not only in Iran, it will be this coming in the next few days but also in Iraq. So I think Americans will have to take note.
>> Well, thank you for adding that. I was going to separately ask you uh about the funeral arrangements. So, thanks for dealing uh with that. I just wanted to make the point and you as a former professor of American studies and who know uh America extremely well, there are now important uh uh obstacles for Trump in resuming the war. or the economic situation you have uh alluded to, but the Senate has now finally passed uh a resolution limiting Trump's ability to do so. But two other things more important than that. The support for the war in America has fallen to some 22%. And the time between now and November and the midterms uh is uh exceedingly short of course getting shorter by every day. So it would not in any way be a costfree uh decision by Trump, never mind the cost on the ground once it had happened.
>> Oh, absolutely, George. And not only is the situation in the United States not at all in favor of war or Trump or the Zionists, but also the situation in Iran is not at all good for them. The Iranians, as I said, have been preparing themselves for war ever since the ceasefire. They they brought in new weapons. They're developing new technologies. But also the Iranian people, George, they have a a new confidence that uh exceeds what uh I mean, you've been to Iran, but it exceeds what what I've ever seen before because now they know that they can go toeto-toe with the superpower and all his its uh proxies and allies in the west and in the region and come out on top and defeat uh the United States. Now, the Iranians feel much more confident about their capabilities, and this is the first time that they've actually gone to war in such a way before. They've tested their capabilities. They've tested their strategies. So, Iran, this is not the Iran of four months ago, and the United States is by no means the United States of four months ago. But at the same time, we have to keep in mind that the Zionists are desperate and the Israeli regime is desperate and Netanyahu is desperate. So everything is possible. But I think it is it is also suicidal because everyone hates I mean Trump himself we know says that everyone hates Israel, everyone hates Netanyah. And as the economic situation in the United States goes downhill and that is what experts are saying that during the next 3 4 months things are going to get more difficult if the United States pushes for further war people across the United States are going to become even more angry and outraged and they'll know who to blame. They'll know that it's Netanyahu. They'll know that it's the Zionists. They'll know that it is Trump who's being obedient to the Zionists. I think this is all in the long run suicidal for the for the Zionist project for the Zionist regime for the for the Zionist lobby.
>> quite so uh now on the subject of allies uh it turns out that it was not just the quizzling uh regimes in your own region uh that were assisting uh Trump's insane war effort uh Ra in order to piate the anger of Donald Trump about the attitude of NATO and the European allies unwisely in some cases dulged to camera that actually all of the NATO uh allies were facilitating hundreds thousands of flights uh to bomb your people, kill little children, destroy civilian bridges and so on. He was forced to say that in order to try and calm Donald Trump down. And much to the embarrassment of people like Melan in Italy or Starmer uh if you remember him in uh England uh they were claiming that they had nothing to do with this war and Rut has now had to uh um cough up that actually they were deeply involved in the war.
Well, I don't know what bootlicking does to the brain, George, because uh obviously in this case, it's it has done the entire Western European establishment a great deal of harm. God forbid anyone that we know would ever stoop to such a a a lowly uh act. Uh but you're you're absolutely correct. We knew this was going on, but it just shows the hypocrisy of these Europeans. Uh remember Joseph Warel when he spoke about European Europe being the garden and the rest of the world being the jungle. Well, that's how it works. The garden in the garden, they they load the the missiles onto the >> jets and then they send them off to bomb the jungle just like they you it reminds me of the war. I'm I'm not old enough to remember it directly, but in documentaries, the war in Vietnam, when you'd see those bombers flying overhead and just dropping bombs on on forests, it was obvious that they were just slaughtering ordinary people. They were just targeting ordinary people. But that's the jungle. So the garden, they can wipe out women and children. And we shouldn't be surprised. I mean, no one should be surprised. for almost three years. It's been three years now. Have you heard the Israeli regime being sanctioned by any of these European governments? Has any European parliament turned against the Israeli regime to sanction it to ban their imports or exports? No, not at all. Why? Because they're all in it together. The UN after 3 years, almost three years says that it's genocide. We knew this almost three years ago. But finally, I'm not saying that these poor experts at the UN did not try, but the UN as an institution, they prevented the word genocide for being used until now, until hundreds of thousands. I mean, some estimates say that almost 700,000 Gazans have died as a result of uh what's going what's happened in in Gaza. They say that the aid that gets gets into Gaza is so much less be and that it shows indicates that the number of people in Gaza are much less than the there were 3 years ago. So when the UN is like that, when for three years we've been seeing the Europeans support genocide and not once sanction the Israeli regime, of course we should expect them to help the Americans bomb our schools, bomb our hospitals, bomb our ambulances, bomb our civilian apartment blocks in Tehran and get away.
>> Finally, professor and I'm always grateful for your time. Uh what can one say about the government of Lebanon and the agreement that they have now made with Netanyahu and the United States? I mean I never had a high opinion of them as you can imagine. Uh but I never thought that they would be so low or rather uh so bold as to do this because I say bold because this cannot end well for them.
You know, George, these are traders to their own country. There you you you can only see these sort of see these stories in 18th century history books. how uh the comprador class would assist the empire in colonization. The brown sahibs, the as Malcolm X would put it, the brown the the house slaves, they you shouldn't expect anything from these people. They were installed by the Americans to do the bidding of the United States. And that's what they did. They gifted southern Lebanon to the Israeli regime. It's as simple as that. But unlike some people, I uh and maybe I'm wrong, but I think that these things are are a good thing because they expose these people. Some some of my friends in Lebanon who've been always pretending that uh you know during the day they always pretend that it's night and when it's night they pretend it's day. They can't hide the reality. when they were justifying when they tried to justify the prime minister of Lebanon for the president of Lebanon, now they can't do that anymore. And these friends or these acquaintances, let me call them, they're silent. They have no way to justify this this treason. And for me, it's, as I said, it's a good thing. Just like I think contrary to the popular view, I think that al-Qaeda in Syria actually was a good thing. True, it hurt it helped the Israeli regime in the short term. True, it hurt the Palestinian cause. True, it hurt the access of resistance in the short term. No doubt about that. But it exposed the those who were supporting these al-Qaeda people in London. You've been you've been you've been forced to leave the UK. You're in exile now. But these people who were supporting al-Qaeda and ISIS in London, in New York, in Washington, these so-called pro Palestinian activists, many of them, where are they now? Why is their al-Qaeda regime doing nothing to help the Palestinian people? Why is it not trying to retake the territory that was stolen, not the Golan Heist, the territory that was stolen after the fall of the former government of pres former President Assad? Why don't they do anything? Why is he instead of uh helping the resistance in Lebanon, why has he tried to prevent Iran from smuggling aid to Lebanon during the past 3 months? He's shut the border in order to strangle the resistance against the Israeli regime. All of this helps to expose the plots and conspiracies of the West, the CIA, Assad, whether it's in Beirut or whether it's in Damascus. And I think in the months ahead, we are going to see a greater awakening and people will better recognize that how how as to how the United States and the Israeli regime manipulate these these organizations, these terrorist groups, how they control them, how they manipulate and control people that they install in power, and how all of these people, whether they're extremist ISIS and al-Qaeda people or They're secular uh people wearing suits and ties. They're all the same. They're tools of the empire.
>> Well, I mean, a lot of my friends in Lebanon, uh I'm talking about friends over 40 years. I've been involved in Lebanon since 1977. uh they would call themselves you know Arab nationalists, Nasserists, uh Baists uh they would have many communists uh and so on. But the the one thing that you could never imagine uh that they would exceed to the literal annexation of the south of their country by the Israeli enemy, which is how they would routinely describe uh the Israeli entity. So it's going to be very difficult for them not to join with those who uh reject this root and branch and and will if necessary uh take up arms to oppose it. So are we looking at uh a civil war in Lebanon?
>> George, I that's why I think that's why I am optimistic because everyone all the masks have been removed. If every if anyone wants to join the the civil war against the resistance they then they they are exposed further. I don't think that the Lebanese public will ever support this. In fact, I think many of my friends who are supportive of the resistance aside, those who have been in the middle and confused by all the propaganda, they have they have to make a choice. Do you side with the Israelis or do you side with the resistance? The same is true in Syria. Across the board, people in this region and beyond have to make a choice. Whose side are you on? There is no middle ground. There is no fence to sit on. You either support the resistance or you support the empire, whether it's in Lebanon, whether it's in Syria, whether it's in any other part of this region or elsewhere. So I I think that what the Americans have done by in by pushing and forcing their proxies to make ridiculous and treasonous decisions. They're they're hurting themselves in the book. They're hurting the empire in the just like when Trump says send in the Syrians into to Lebanon. He's exposing his proxy even further. This in the long run I think hurts the empire and I think it increases support for the resistance. I don't think that they're Hezbollah is very wise and you know them I know them their leadership basim has shown himself to be extraordinarily competent and very wise. I think they will prevent a ceasefire. But if, god forbid, those forces get their way, I think the people of Lebanon themselves will defeat any attempt for civil war. And I think that in Syria, if al-Qaeda comes to the assistance of their their American allies in Lebanon, that will fail, too. Because first of all, the Iranians the Iranians have been able to teach the Americans and the Israelis a lesson. I don't think that the Golani regime, if they attempt to move into Lebanon, that they will be able to withstand the wrath of the Iranians and the Iraqi resistance.