Transcription
Well, Iran is not going to even negotiate with the United States now. Iran has said, "We are not going to have any more negotiations. It's finished." Until the United States carries out its obligations, we won't have any any negotiations, let alone a deal.
It is Iran that is responsible for normalizing shipping to the state of Hormuz. Iran and Iran won't. And then and then the Iranians and the Omani government can negotiate about the future. There's no mention of the United States. So, what does the United States do? They open up their own corridor through the strait. Whereas Iran is responsible for normalization. And Iran knows why the United States wants to do this. Why why it's doing it. It wants to undermine Iran's authority and thus undermine Iran's leverage.
Welcome to World Affairs and Context everybody. I'm Lyanna Petrova and today I'm very pleased to welcome back to the program Dr. Seyed Muhammad Marandi. Professor Marandi is an academic, a political commentator and he has also been engaged in the US-Iran nuclear negotiations that led to the signing of the JCPOA back in 2015. And he is a very prolific commentator who is a great resource on the current events in Iran and the US-Iran negotiations and relations in general. Professor Marandi, welcome back to the program. It is so great to see you again.
>> Thank you very much for having me. It's always a great pleasure being on your show.
>> Likewise. It's so great to have you and there are so many things to discuss. Um, the United States and Iran of course signed what many viewed as a temporary framework to reduce tensions, but military strikes resumed on July the 10th. I noticed that Trump posted on Truth Social and declared the ceasefire over while US officials simultaneously insist that diplomatic talks continue. Do you believe that the United States and Iran is still viable or has it effectively broken down?
>> The Iranians from the very beginning were under no illusion that the United States would adhere to its commitments in accordance with the MOU. The history of Iran-US relations has always been one where the United States, as Pompeo would say, lies and cheats and steals. And uh, that's basically what the United States has always done with Iran. And that's what it has done with previous agreements. They've always lied. They've always cheated. And they've stole what they could steal. And so the expectation was that the United States would behave exactly as we're seeing right now. So for the Iranians, what is important is for them to have leverage and that leverage is the Strait of Hormuz and its nuclear program. Trump needs a deal, a nuclear deal. He won't have a nuclear deal if there is no um adherence to US commitments in accordance with the deal. But more importantly, there will be no normalization of trade through the Strait of Hormuz if the United States does not adhere to its side of the bargain.
Now, what is the United States violating? Almost everything. The United States has not turned over stolen Iranian assets in violation of the deal. Trump constantly threatens Iranians and Iranian leaders in violation of the deal. Uh, the United States has reinstalled the sanctions on Iran's oil exports after just a couple of weeks, a violation of the deal. The United States has expanded the sanctions regime, a violation of the deal. Uh, the the United States um is not pushing the Israeli regime to leave Lebanon and to end the murder and slaughter in the country. Another violation of the deal. The list goes on. And of course the the violation that we're now dealing with is in the Strait of Hormuz according to Article five of the MOU. It is Iran that is responsible for normalizing shipping to the Strait of Hormuz and Iran only. And then and then the Iranians and the Omani government can negotiate about the future. There's no mention of the United States. So what does the United States do? They open up their own corridor through the strait. Whereas Iran is responsible for normalization. And Iran knows why the United States wants to do this, why why it's doing it. It wants to undermine Iran's authority and thus undermine Iran's leverage.
So the United States is violating all the other elements of the deal and trying to undermine Iran's leverage. So Iran for a couple of weeks warned the United States to discontinue this. It warned the Saudis and the Kuwaitis and the Emiratis and the Qataris not to cooperate. They ignored Iran and ultimately Iran had to strike uh ships that were violating uh Iranian naval commands that were in accordance with the the deal and then the United States started bombing Iran which is another violation. So it's all violations. The United States is violating at all levels. But Iran is not going to allow the United States to control its SA programs. And the more the United States uh refrains from carrying out its commitments, the Iranians will make life more difficult for the Americans because the Iranians won't adhere to their side of the bargain and thus fewer ships will go through.
Now, if the Americans were smart, they would have adhered to the deal, carried out their commitments, shipping would have normalized. The energy crisis that we have uh, the the economic crisis that is looming. It would have been uh dealt with in a way in which uh would have led to hopefully for the global economy in the months ahead a more stable situation and maybe a year from now normalization. But because of his actions, Trump and and probably under pressure from the Zionist lobby, well, definitely under pressure from the Zionist lobby and Israeli regime, he is causing the the amount of ships to leave the Strait of Hormuz to diminish because he's this conflict is making the Strait of Hormuz less safe. So if he had behaved normally, if the United States had behaved like a normal country, carried out its commitments, right now we would have more ships passing through and they would all be safe. But since he wants to defeat Iran where he he lost at on the battlefield, you know, Trump lost at in siege warfare, he lost at the negotiating table. So he wants to cheat Iran in implementation and defeat Iran through refraining from carrying out its side of the bargain and then taking Iran's leverage away from it. It's not going to happen. And that's the results we've seen. I mean, the Americans can pretend that they've destroyed Iran's assets and you you've heard that, you know, if you watch Western media, you think Iran's naval Iran's military capabilities were destroyed. Well, we heard that for 40 days during the war and ultimately the United States had to accept defeat. So, no one should really take this propaganda seriously. The reality is that most of Iran's key assets are deep underground. Whereas the American assets are not underground. They're in their bases and across the Persian Gulf. And so, they're all very vulnerable. Iran can destroy a million a billion dollar radar system with a drone, but the Americans have to bomb underground missile bases with B-52s every day. And then we see the missiles still fly from those underground bases. So, you know, Western propaganda aside, things are not going well for the United States.
>> Dr. Marandi, it appears that the dispute over Iran's proposed service fee in the Strait of Hormuz is one of the central issues. Now, at the same time, my understanding is that Washington is simply trying to reassert control over the Strait of Hormuz and return the navigation to pre-war uh pre-war framework, which would effectively take that leverage away from Iran as you mentioned. Um, so is the service fee used as uh simply as a pretext um or is is there truly uh some substance to these western reports that indicate um the service fee being one of the major issues?
>> Well, that is an issue and the Iranians are not going to um put that aside. Iran will control the strait and it will uh take fees um and it will not allow the Persian Gulf to begin militarized like it was before to threaten Iran. But the real issue I think is a bit different. And I think the real issue is that the United States wants the the trade to go through this Strait of Hormuz unimpeded and then it would not carry out its obligation.
>> Mhm.
>> And then so it would it would refrain from doing carrying out when it refrains from carrying out its its obligations, it would then be able to strike Iran and begin another war in the months ahead. Put economic pressure on Iran, impose a siege, harass Iranians, kill Iranians, and basically do the bidding of the Israeli regime. So, but the Iranians are not naive. They are they know that uh the United States, if it's it's not a a law-abiding government. It's a it's, you know, they believe in American exceptionalism. They're sort of like the Zionists and that they believe that they have exceptional rights that they're superior to the rest of the world. The rest of the world has obeyed has obeyed the law but the United States is above the law. I mean Zionism is much worse but but still that mentality in the United States is among US elites is clearly so they don't believe that they have to adhere to any commitments but the other side has to and Iran is not going to have any of that. So the real issue is they want to take away that leverage from Iran so that they can cheat Iran in the deal and then build up pressure against the country and undermine the country's sovereignty. But they failed to do that after in 40 for 40 days and they brought the world to the close to an economic uh um to a close to a cliff the global economy to a cliff and we haven't really moved away from that cliff. So if the United States starts another war, it won't take four months for us to get where we you know, to get to that cliff again. It will take four weeks according to Trump himself. So this is not a situation which I think uh is uh is beneficial to the United States. But uh I've I I no longer I I used to in my youth think about um actions in the West in terms of rationality.
And over the years I've come to the conclusion that Western governments are among the most irrational governments in the world and so uh US behavior right now towards Iran is not based on rationality it's based on raw emotion anger rage and of course Zionism, the the Zionist lobby, Zionist ideology, um a a supremacist worldview. And so you any sane and normal person would say well the best thing to do is just to carry out your obligations, have the Iranians normalize trade through the Strait of Hormuz, improve the global uh economic situation and ease tensions. But that's not how the that's not how Washington works.
You mentioned um economic uh economic consequences of uh closing the navigation or restricting navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and I just wanted to sort of um you know get your thoughts on um on the following. The most recent reports that were produced by the US Energy Agency indicate that the United States petroleum reserve is now at a 40-year low. And it is clear and as you pointed out another major disruption in the Strait of Hormuz would cause the Trump administration dearly in terms of economic damage especially ahead of the US midterm elections. Why do you believe Trump is doubling down on his aggressive posturing toward Iran rather than use the off-ramp that the MOU effectively provides him? What what is driving this? And and and this is clearly rational. It is going to hurt millions of the the people here in the US because prices are going to rise and the oil reserve is at an all-time low. So why why is he doubling down on his aggressive posturing despite all of these facts, all of these red flags at the moment?
>> Well, your guess is as good as mine, if not better. Uh, all I can say is that it's a combination of two things at least. These are the two that I can think of. One is the Israeli regime and the Zionist lobby which does not want peace. It wants uh it wants it wants heightened tensions. It wants conflict. Um, it doesn't care about the US economy. It doesn't care about the global economy. It only cares about the Israeli regime. And therefore, they're willing to sacrifice the United States. So their their influence over him, which itself, you can speculate why they have that influence. Do they have footage of him doing something horrific? Uh, is it the hundreds of millions of dollars that they've given to him directly? I mean, it could be a combination of things too, but um, that is one element. The the second element is his ego and his arrogance. The war was a defeat.
>> It was an open defeat. I mean, when Robert Kagan of all people says that this was the biggest US defeat ever, literally military wise, um, then it shows how bad things are. The United States has been badly badly beaten on the battlefield, but also in siege warfare. And now he's pushed the economy towards close to a cliff. By his own admission when he was attacked for the MOU from all the different uh political factions in the United States, he said we were four weeks away from running out of energy. I mean, that's not really a smart thing to say, but he he said it, I guess, to to silence his critics. Of course, one could ask, well, why did you do this in the first place to get us >> into such a horrible situation? But that's, you know, that's that's another issue. So, um, I think that he is unable to do the right thing because he's being forced to move in a different direction and he too uh would feels that he would be humiliated. But Iran is not going to relent. And if the United States continues down this straight c this course of action and uh, you know, tries to open up its own corridor, the Iranians are going to strike new ships. They're going to hit ships and make sure that they do not go through the Strait of Hormuz without being u without paying the price.
>> Let's turn to the nuclear issue. The Trump administration um has linked further negotiations to Iran addressing US demands over its enriched uranium stockpile. I was under the impression that the nuclear factor would be negotiated in later phases of the process. Um, would you walk us through this particular detail and and what is Iran's uh position on the nuclear demands at this time?
>> Well, Iran is not going to even negotiate with the United States now. Iran has said, "We're not going to have any more negotiations. It's finished." Until the United States carries out its obligations, we won't have any any negotiations, let alone a deal. Now, the nuclear issue will only be discussed and ultimately uh perhaps resolved in the later phase. As you pointed out, in order for us to even get to nuclear negotiations, let alone an agreement, the United States has to carry out its obligations. That means keeping uh the uh refraining from imposing another siege of course, which that's the only thing that they have not violated yet, but they have to release Iran's stolen assets. They have to leave the Strait of Hormuz and and uh stop interrupting Iran's management of the strait. They have to force the Israelis to the Israeli regime to leave Lebanon and to end the slaughter. They have to refrain from threatening Iranian uh officials and the Iranian people. That's a part of the MOU. They have to lift the sanctions on Iran's oil exports. These are all violations of the they're violating everything and they're all and to refrain from attacking Iran. So all these are all violations of the United States. As long as the United States is violating these elements, not only is Iran not going to negotiate the nuclear deal, but the Iranians are not going to normalize trade through the Strait of Hormuz.
So Iran has said that we right because you've heard probably today that Trump said that the Iranians have asked to negotiate and uh I agreed to. No, the Iranians are not even going to accept negotiating. This is just another fake claim made by Trump or the Axios claim, >> right? >> All nonsense, too. Like the Axios said that the Iranians said that uh a faction in Iran was behind this and this wasn't No, the Iranians struck those ships by a decision made by the Supreme National Security Council, the state. The Revolutionary Guards, the army do not have autonomy to just go fire missiles. They do as the state tells them. So this, you know, this fake news from Axios about rogue elements or or divisions in the country, that's all nonsense. The Iranians did not apologize to the United States. The Iranians sent a clear message to the Americans and to these regimes in the Persian Gulf by striking their ships because they told them not to do this, but they insisted on taking the using the American corridor in violation of the MOU. So the Iranians were sending the Americans a message and the a message to these countries to stop using that corridor. You go through the corridor designated by the Iranian armed forces. And um and the Americans said by tonight I think Iranians should declare that we will hit no more ships. Iran is not going to not going to make such a commitment. Iran is not going to even negotiate with America as I said. So Axios is just nonsense. What Trump says is nonsense. At the moment, there there not going to be any talks at all until the Americans start taking action with regards to their obligations. And only then will we see the Strait of Hormuz begin to normalize. And only after stage one has been uh implemented in full can we start seriously talking about the comprehensive maximum pressure sanctions and the Iranian nuclear program and move towards resolving that. But at this stage we're we're we're nowhere near that discussion.
>> Dr. Marandi, I would love for you to clarify Iran's domestic political um sort of uh dynamic at the moment. My understanding is that there are differences between Iranian officials who support seeking negotiations with the United States and those who favor maybe a military pressure or or who really don't have any trust in the Trump administration and and you can't really blame them either. So what does the majority of Iranian leaders prefer after US strikes and after Trump declaring US ceasefire is over and then saying Iran is out to get him of all things?
>> You're absolutely correct. There are some people who are opposed to the MOU. They say that Iran has uh been too flexible and they they have good arguments to make and there are others who think that this deal uh is uh there are enough assurances in the deal to make to so that the Americans cannot cheat Iran meaning for example the Strait of Hormuz that since the Americans are violating the deal the Iranians are not allowing allowing ships to go through in larger numbers. So the more the United States violates the deal, the more they are strangled uh through the Strait of Hormuz. In any case, there are different there are different views obviously there in Iran. Contrary I mean, we've seen over the past four and a half months that all the propaganda of the West is is nonsense. We've seen how Iran is not broken and fragmented and it's not an unpopular regime as they love to call it. It's, you know, a regime which is corrupt and incapable of self-governance and unpopular and and a house of cards. And we've been hearing that for decades. And of course, I've always been saying this is nonsense. But for the past four and a half months, we've been seeing everything that people like myself have been pointing out to be true. Iran was supposed to fall. It didn't. They then they said, "Well, if Iran survives, it wins." Iran didn't just survive. It won the war. And then they said, "Well, this is a rally around the flag effect." Anyone who's been watching the funeral processions over the past week, they know this is not a rally around the flag effect. This is far bigger and more and more significant and deeper than any rally around the flag effect. Well over 10 million people participated in the funeral in Tehran alone. 40 million people participated over 40 million people in in the different cities in in the the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, many millions in the city of Qom, the holy city of Qom in Iran, many millions and in the city of Mashhad where he was laid to rest, many millions there too and all over 40 million people. It was so huge that for once Western media could not hide it. They always say thousands of Iranians if they want to be very generous, tens of thousands of Iranians, but this was like just and there were fortunately that they had invited many journalists to Iran, alternative media journalists for the most part, but very, you know, many people who you know.
>> Mhm.
>> And they witness and they they've been to the different processions and they witness all this. So this shows that this is not a rally around the flag. This is this shows the depth of support among Iranians for the Islamic Republic. It shows the degree of popular legitimacy and eyes of the Iranians. Something that the West does not have. Iran has greater popular legitimacy and greater depth in that legitimacy than the West than in Western countries. So that's another myth that was dealt with. And and of course the idea that Iran was this dictatorship and we have debates in Iran, it's an it's it's far more open than any of the countries in our region that are aligned to the United States and increasingly more open than the West. In the West, you get into trouble just by talking about Israel. In Europe in particular. So yeah, so we have these debates and they're normal and they're healthy debates and they're necessary. Uh, but uh, but at the end of the day, you know, when the war started, and I think we discussed this once on your show, we didn't have a leader for a full week because they I don't know how many was martyred and they couldn't choose a new leader because the Americans and Israelis would try to bomb wherever elected officials would gather to choose a new elected officials from the body that chooses and removes a leader. The the Council of Experts is according to the constitution it chooses the leader and it can remove the leader. So the Americans and the Israelis were looking to see where they gather to kill all of them the the people's representatives and so it took a week or or so. So the country was fighting a war against the superpower and this coalition of evil, the Israelis, these regimes in the Persian Gulf. The the the Secretary General of NATO admitted that NATO was a part of this as he was licking the boots of Trump. Uh, so for they were fighting this huge coalition, a country under maximum pressure sanctions, by the way, and for a week they fought without a leader. I mean, according to the constitution, they had a provisional leadership council, the president, the head of the judiciary, and a representative from the council, the Guardian Council, but you know, that's not real leadership, that was just to transition transitioning power. So for a week we were fighting against the superpower and its coalition without a leader and that shows how steadfast the Iranian people are. They kept the country together during that time of crisis. So all these myths about Iran and what is this all about? The problem is that Iran opposes genocide. The axis of resistance opposes ethnic cleansing. The Islamic Republic opposes this holocaust, this ongoing holocaust in Gaza. And of course the genocidal uh attacks on Lebanon. And that's why it's antagonized. That's that's Iran's guilt. So the last four and a half months have really torn apart all these myths about Iran. And people are asking, people have been asking themselves, well, if Iran is this really evil regime that we're told about and we've been told about for for so many years, then why is it that it's Iran and its allies that are opposing genocide and everyone else is either supporting it or silent about it or complicit. The narrative doesn't work anymore.
>> No, it doesn't. You're right. Um, you've mentioned several regional issues that I would love to uh dive a bit deeper into. Maybe we can begin with the um sort of a brief question regarding the NATO summit in Ankara. So Trump appeared to agree to sell American fighter jets F-35s to Turkey. Yeah. And there are reports that Erdogan is planning to sell um his Russian S-400s in order to be able to acquire F-35s. Now Netanyahu posted uh or I believe it was an interview perhaps he said that um clearly that goes against Israel's interests and that would undermine the balance of power in the Middle East if Turkey does acquire F-35s. Israel also said that Turkey is going to be the next target after Iran. But at the same time, we know that Erdogan continues to sell oil to Netanyahu and and there are so many conflicting interests yet I think there is a really interesting dynamic that's unfolding and that's becoming quite difficult to ignore. Could you comment on the role of uh Turkey here and Israel in in this growing sort of um um power shift or or uh gap between interests in the Middle East and how it affects the um the US-Iran relations and um attempts at diplomacy?
>> Well, Turkey, when we speak about Turkey, we're talking about the Turkish government of the Turkish people are very supportive of the Palestinian groups. According to polls, they're way up there when it comes to I mean, the world is supporting Palestine, but Turkey is one of those countries where the support is very well over 90%. It's not just, it's like 98%, something very, very high. It's almost universal. But the the Turkish government is no friend of Palestine. I mean, it you it it uses empty words and slogans and but it cooperates with the Israeli regime and it's always cooperated with the Israeli regime throughout the genocide. They've been transporting oil to Netanyahu during this energy crisis. They've been transporting cheap oil from Baku to Netanyahu. They have a political relationship. There are other economic relationships that they deny but that exist. During the NATO conference, anti-Israeli activists, they were arrested before uh the uh NATO conference began so that they would embarrass the government. So people who are anti-Israel even before they came to the streets that they're they're like leaders, they were all arrested just so that you know Trump would not be embarrassed or or that the leaders would not be embarrassed. And of course we saw Trump say in in at the NATO summit that uh Erdogan is more faithful to him than European leaders. So you know, I for me it's like just it's just unbelievable that as the genocide is going on that we have that sort of relationship. So Netanyahu, everyone is no threat to Israel and Netanyahu wants to make everyone a threat because he wants to stay in power. So he wants to constantly uh you know, all of these wars and it's it's destroying Israel. I mean, the world hates this regime now. It's delegitimized itself in the eyes of the international community. People have woken up to the nature of Zionism. But Netanyahu doesn't care about Israel. He cares about Netanyahu and his coalition partners are fanatics that are not very sane. So Turkey has no intention of attacking Israel. And we see that uh in Syria, Turkey worked with Israel to destroy Syria, to destroy the country. They help they both supported ISIS and Al-Qaeda under the uh within the framework of the US uh uh operation uh against Syria, the dirty war, timber sycamore. Uh, the Qataris participated, the Saudis and and all these oil and gas rich regimes in the Persian Gulf, they all participated and most of the ISIS and Al-Qaeda people went through Turkey into Syria and into Iraq and of course from through Jordan too from Jordan too, but mostly through Turkey. So this was a joint operation carried out by uh NATO and their regional proxies and and Turkey and Erdogan destroyed Syria. U there's actually a journalist Serena Shim who was murdered alongside the uh she worked for Press TV. She was murdered. She had two kids. She was murdered alongside the border uh of Turkey and Syria when she was reporting how uh World Food Organization trucks were being used to to transport troops and ammunition into Syria from Turkey. And then Turkish intelligence said that she's espionage. She said this on air. She said this live that they're I'm very worried. They say I'm uh like I'm an I'm I'm a spy. I'm just a reporter. And then she died that very day in an accident. They killed her. Turkish intelligence. So um and there's a award for journalism uh called the Serena Shim Award out of remembrance. So Erdogan he was you know created he was supporting ISIS and Al-Qaeda in order to as a part of this operation which was to destroy Syria and of course destroy the axis of resistance and help the Israeli regime and Turkey would get its piece of the cake and we see Golani too. I mean Golani met Trump and Trump right in front of Golani said I gave the Golan Heights his the guy's name is Jolani and he said nothing and he said Syria will you know should go into Lebanon and help deal with the resistance deal with Hezbollah. Jolani he said nothing why because he is a proxy. So no one should really take anything I mean I mean to under Erdogan despite the public opinion on Palestine, it has done nothing to benefit the Palestinian people. In fact, the ceasefire in Gaza that Trump imposed an unjust ceasefire was endorsed by Turkey and in Egypt. Um, Trump there too said that Erdogan was always there whenever I needed it. So, Turkey under Erdogan is no enemy of Israel. Turkey exerts you know, tries to carry out a par it's its parallel ambitions in in the Caucasus and and Erdogan is the one as I said, the Turkish people, their their sentiments are are clear, polls show where they stand, but they are the one now he's he's not a but Netanyahu needs enemies and uh even the Turkish officials I think the Turkish foreign minister said this that he's he's he needs enemies basically saying we're not enemies he's presenting us as the enemy of Israel because he needs enemies. I think that's ironically an accurate assessment.
>> Thank you so much for walking us through. I know it's a very complex complex subject with multiple moving pieces and and this was I thought a really really brilliant um brilliant way to describe and and point out the most important developments. Dr. Marandi, if we turn to Lebanon very briefly, obviously the ceasefire has been a uh one of the requests, one of the requirements that Iran has had for uh for months now. And um what are your thoughts on the most recent developments in Lebanon and Washington's ability and or desire to uh to address that requirement as well?
>> Well, the Iranians have said that, as we discussed earlier, that if the United States does not abide by its commitments in the MOU, Iran will not abide by its commitments. And number one on the list in the MOU is Lebanon. Article one deals with Lebanon. The Israeli regime has to leave and end the killing. That's it. Iran will not move forward with the MOU unless this issue is dealt with. There will be no normalization in the Strait of Hormuz unless until as long as the occupation continues. Very simple. So if Trump wants to to wreck the global economy, if he wants to drag down the global economy, this is the way forward to allow the Israeli regime to get away with genocide in Lebanon and to continue occupying the country. Trump made a commitment to bring this to an end. And in return, among his other commitments, of course, and in return, the Iranians would normalize trade through the Strait of Hormuz. He doesn't carry out his commitments, the Iranians won't carry out their commitments. It's as simple as that.
Now, the United States has installed a proxy government in Beirut. The president and the prime minister, they don't have any popular mandate. They were installed by the Americans under duress and the Saudis. And they are there basically to undermine the resistance. And they did their own with the Israeli regime basically gifting southern Lebanonizing death and destruction by the Israelis. That's how treacherous these two people are. And then meanwhile, Syria under Golani, they've blocked the border between Syria and Lebanon so that Iran could not smuggle in aid to the resistance. So the resistance in Beirut is surrounded from Beirut from the you know, in Beirut and by Golani and ISIS and Al-Qaeda US proxies and of course the Israelis, but they fought an extraordinary war and they battered the Israelis despite being surrounded, which I think is stunning. But the Iranians are saying if this if this occupation does not end, then the global economy will go downhill because we will not normalize trade through this strait and of course we won't have a nuclear deal or nuclear negotiations either. So Iran has leverage and if the Israeli regime of course does begin to violate the ceasefire uh increasingly and kill more people, then Iran will definitely strike the Israeli regime. So we are in a very complicated situation right now in the region. But uh as I said early on, Trump does not hold good cards and he's he seems to be gambling the house, betting the house. Uh, I don't that's how they say it in gambling. I'm since I'm not a gambler, I don't know. And he's he's he's he may lose the house. I mean, if he goes down this road, he'll lose the house. If there's war, we will swiftly, the global economy will swiftly go over the cliff. If there's constant tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, it will go downhill progressively. But none of these are good scenarios for the United States. But as long as the United States does not abide by its commitments, they should not expect the Iranians to reciprocate.
And my understanding is that the United States there there are multiple tracks, right? And and they're all moving at the same time. And my understanding is that while Washington is sort of pursuing this um what many would argue is a fake diplomacy via the MOU with Iran, Washington is also working on certain things to weaken the axis of resistance in Iraq for example and across the Middle East. Iraq arguably is still an occupied state. Its revenues go to Washington to the Federal Reserve. Um and uh Trump has very much >>
>> Very good point. Very good point. People don't know that. People don't know that.
>> Yeah. And I think it is very >> Iraqi wealth that when Iraq sells its oil, it goes to the United States.
>> Yep. Into US bank a bank account and the United States government decides what to give to the Iraqi government.
>> Yes. So Iraq has been completely destroyed and and it's uh revenue from its natural assets are being given to Washington that then decides what happens with that revenue. And it's this this would be a fascinating subject for another video I think just to bring light to this particular issue. And and and so um my understanding is that Trump has also been very intimately involved in the most recent PM uh prime minister elections in Iraq. Um, would you comment on how Washington works to weaken the resistance in Iraq and the implications that it has on the axis of resistance and sort of Iran's position toward Washington and its ability and desire to negotiate in good faith with Iran?
>> So in the recent parliamentary elections in Iraq, the supporters of the resistance, they won big and US uh backed groups and Turkish and uh Israeli and Saudi backed groups and the batbacked groups all of them combined they failed. And so the the the supporters of the resistance chose uh Mr. Shamkhani as the the candidate for premiership and the United States threatened Iraq. They said we will strangle your economy if he is made prime minister. And you know the difference between Iran and the United States is that the United States takes Iraqi money and doesn't give it to them. The Iranians. Iran sells both electricity and natural gas to Iraq. But because of the sanctions, the the Americans don't allow the Iraqis to pay for for natural gas and electricity. And the Iranians would always say, "Do not cut it off even though we're not being paid because Iraqis need this gas and electricity. Even though we are under sanctions, we have our own problems." But throughout this period, while the Americans were trying to strangle the Iraqis, the Iranians over these years have been giving Iraq literally free gas and free electricity. So when was taken to the holy city of Najaf and the holy city of Karbala, you saw the millions of people on the streets of these two cities and that shocked the Americans and the Israelis and it shows where the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people are. And they were calling for revenge and the emotions that they showed. I mean, not only were there millions of people and it's it's like 10 degrees hotter in these cities than in Iran and it was hot enough in Iran as I it was very hot, very difficult in Iran. So imagine how it was in Iraq. But um so that shows that the the link and remember Ayatollah was the person who saved Iraq from ISIS. The ISIS that the United States and the Israelis and Erdogan created. They stormed it to Iraq and they almost took Baghdad and then Iran sent in General Soleimani. Hezbollah sent in its sent its officers to train Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, volunteers and um to fight alongside the Iraqi army and General um and then there was the head of the Iraqi uh Popular Mobilization Forces uh Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Um and um the Americans killed General Soleimani and Trump killed General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi. So um when people in the West speak about Iraq, they don't tell the truth. The Western journalists, Western elites, they they give us an upside down version of reality. And so there's a reason why Iranian uh um like candidates that are friendly to Iran win elections in Iraq because the Iranians sacrifice for Iraq. They gave martyrs to help Iraq. They they support the Iraqi economy and the Americans steal their oil wealth and threaten them and to tell them who they can or cannot choose as prime minister. And in the council of ministers and so on.
>> Dr. Marandi, perhaps let's uh close with um more of a broad question. Um if the Trump administration refuses to negotiate in good faith and Iran, as a sovereign state, refuses to serve Washington's interests, what options remain at this time? It seems that diplomacy has been given a chance many times, but it appears to fail every time. Um, what what should we expect in the short term with respect to the MOU and the ceasefire and Iran's ability to overcome the challenges presented by the Trump administration to truly move forward and and and toward a diplomatic settlement?
>> As I said earlier, Iran is not going to negotiate any. The negotiations for Iran are over. And uh whenever the Americans decide to implement their side of the deal, then we can start talking. Otherwise, Iran is just going to pursue its own policies. The chances for war exist. It would be insane for the Americans to go down that path because it would wreck the global US economy. But, you know, you have the Zionist lobby, the Israeli regime, you have Trump's ego, you who knows what they have on him. I'm not saying they have anything on him, but you know, he's in the FBI files like I don't know, his name's there for like 10,000 times or or so. I don't know, 10 thousands of times. Anyway, so he's named more in the FBI files than anyone else. So, you can guess that it it doesn't sound unreasonable for them to have dirt on him. Um, so there's a possibility for war. The Iranians are prepared for war. As we saw during the last three days when the Americans attacked Iran, Iran hit back very hard. They did not uh hold back and um there's also a chance that we'll just it will remain as it is. In other words, clashes and but that will drag down the global economy. May not maybe not as suddenly as a war, but it will, you know, drag it down and it would be disastrous for Trump's midterm elections, too. There's a chance that Trump will change his mind and implement the deal, but I mean, I'm not a betting man. Thanks, thank God, but I wouldn't bet on that. So it doesn't look good for the world uh because the Israeli regime and the Zionist won't have that. Um, Trump is trying to I think trying to see how far what he can get by not uh implementing the deal. And I think he gets nothing because as I said, the Iranians have structured the deal in the way in which they have leverage. Trump is trying to undermine that and Iran will not accept. So there's an easy solution. All he has to do is implement his side of the bargain. Everything goes through the strait. Things are normalized. Things get better for the global economy. Uh, down the road over a few months, things begin to stabilize. But uh, so far we don't see any sign of that happening.
>> Dr. Marandi, thank you so much for joining and for such a fascinating conversation. Thanks for helping clarify the ongoing events and and put them into perspective. I look forward to having you on the program again soon. Thank you for your time.
>> It's always an honor. Thank you very much for having me.