Professor Marandi: Iran WELCOMES US Invasion

For the Iranian perspective on whatever is happening this morning, we are very fortunate to be joined by Professor Mohamed Morandi of the University of Tehran.Great to see you again, sir.

Good to see you, sir.Great to see the two of you.

So let me get your live reaction here to the latest Trump truth social post.He says the United States will be hitting Iran, whose Navy, Air Force, radar, anti -aircraft and all other forms of defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are gone very hard tonight.At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Carg Island and other oil infrastructure points and assume total control of their oil and gas markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America.Thank you for your attention to this matter.I know you're processing this in real time, but what is your initial reaction here, sir?

It doesn't surprise me. I mean, that's the sort of thing that Trump does say.And we've seen him carry it out in Venezuela and threaten to take Cuba.And he is currently strangling Cuba.And he's facilitating the genocide and the ongoing genocide in southern Lebanon and, of course, the ongoing genocide in Gaza.So we have no expectations.But it's interesting that that I recognize that there is an Iranian audience out there and they see that the Trump regime is not prepared to to be reasonable and that it is openly saying that it's going to take Iranian resources and Iranian territory.

So that is going to do nothing but unite the country further if there are those who are uh saying that maybe we should find a solution even though it may not becompletely fair, and even if the agreement may not be fully just, but maybe we should accept an agreement with the Americans in the hope that Trump will back down and behave more reasonably.When they see this, they say, okay, then the political forces in power in Iran, they're right, they have to be tough and steadfast.with Trump in order to prevent him from stealing our land and resources.So he unites the Iranian people further.He tells the world of his openly 18th century, 19th century, early 20th century imperial ambitions.

I don't think it helps the United States.And he's going to fail.Last night, that huge offensive, it was somewhat bigger than the previous attack, but the Iranian response was also equally tough.The United States didn't open the Strait of Hormuz.It's not going to be able to open the Strait of Hormuz.And meanwhile, the global economic situation gets worse by the day.

Professor, I want to ask, the last time you were on our show, forgive me if I'm wrong, you seemed quite optimistic about a potential deal.We've interviewed you several times.You seemed fairly optimistic and you're very tapped in.You, of course, have accompanied some of these delegations as an observer.This time around, just monitoring some of your communications, you don't seem nearly as optimistic.And I know that you speak to many of the people who are in power.

What is the feeling in the higher echelons of power in Tehran?

I've never been Very optimistic.I'm just, in general, I'm not a pessimistic person.And I am an optimistic person, despite all the horrors that we see every day.You wake up in the morning and you look at your social media and you see dead bodies in Gaza and Lebanon and so on.But in general, I am hopeful for the future.I believe that at the end of the day, the United States is going to have to back down, whether it's by signing an agreement that's reasonable.

or whether it's just going to have to sort of walk away or melt away, which is not going to be easy tomorrow.But the fact is that Iran has, during the 39 days war, during 39 days of hot war, it has shown that it could defeat a superpower and it can defeat a superpower with its broad coalition, the regimes in the region, the Israeli regime, the collective West through their maximum pressure sanctions, even Turkey is, US bases in Turkey, NATO airwax, AWACS jets were being used against Iran.The Republic of Azerbaijan was working against Iran.This huge coalition fighting against Iran, directly or indirectly, and the Iranians won the war.So the Iranians are competent.Now what Trump is trying to do is to strangle the Iranian people.

That's what the siege is about, to prevent food from getting in, medicine from getting in.from preventing Iran from gaining wealth through its oil trade.But first of all, that's a double edged sword and it's bringing down the global economy.And second of all, if it was so successful, we wouldn't now be seeing the United States constantly breaking the ceasefire over the past few weeks and attacking Iranian positions.So obviously in siege warfare, the United States ceasefire, they just sit back and relax and wait till the Iranian people die of hunger.

I wanted to get your reaction to if we could put A8 up on the screen.the screen here.There was a report from Amwaj Media that effectively the new bombing campaign from the U .S.and presumably the social media bluster threats, we're going to bomb the S sound of you, we're going to take Carg Island, etc. are part of providing sort of rhetorical and military cover to enable Trump to accept a deal that is, in fact, close to being finalized, with credit to Qatar for mediating this.Now, this is based allegedly on an insider in Tehran.

Do you think that that could be the case?Sagar and I were just talking about, I recall back when there was the threat to end the entire civilization and to bomb all of the infrastructure and the bridges in Iran, and that seemed to be an attempt by Trump to provide some to the table, and now we've got this great deal?

I don't know, because I don't think anyone knows what goes on in Trump's head.And so I have given up predicting Trump.And I, for a long time now, whenever people contact me and say, Trump has said this or he said that, will you come and tell us what you think he'll do next?I say, look, I don't even read his material.I don't— Smart.—see something different, and whatever I say is going to turn out wrong.

So I really don't know.It sounds nice, but I don't see Qatar as being relevant because Qatar is not a mediator.It is Pakistan, even though Pakistan is only sending the written messages back and forth.It is possible.And this is something that has been said in the past that Trump may, in fact, the belief was in Iran many weeks ago that the United States will ultimately attack Iran again.And then change its policies, that would be possible.

So it's not impossible, but I don't think we can, I don't think that that's something that we should be, that I don't think that's something that we can, I don't think we can make predictions about Trump because he's just, I mean, his negotiators, they have basically agreed on almost everything.We know that the general terms of the agreement, And the Iranians are not going to accept any changes.There are some differences right now, but the general terms of the agreement are pretty clear.But every now and then Trump comes up and comes out and says that I'm not going to give Iran's assets back, or I'm not going to lift the siege, or I'm not going to end the sanctions.Well, your negotiators have written all this down on paper.So I don't know what he's going to do ultimately.

I'm sure he's under a huge amount of pressure from the Zionist lobby and Israeli regime not to sign this.If I think if it wasn't for them, he would have signed this agreement a long time ago.In fact, I don't think there would have been a war in the first place.But we are where we are.And I don't want to make predictions because whatever I say, you can be absolutely sure it'll turn out to be wrong.

So this is fascinating to me.So, sir, OK, let's let's stick then.So you want to look at Trump?Let's stick with Iran.Let's put B1 up here on the screen.I'll read.

it to you since I know you can't.Iran and U .S.officials held parallel talks with Qatari mediators in Doha over the last two days.The Qataris tried to arrange a trilateral meeting to directly negotiate on the remaining gaps, but the Iranians refused.

Well, as far as I know, and I have to look into this, but as far as I know, Doha's role has been mostly about facilitating the transfer of Iranian stolen assets back to Iran.The reason why Iran wants these is because Iran in the past, whenever they negotiated with the United States, When it came down to implementation, the Americans would cheat Iran.Obama did that.It's that's always been the case with America.So here they're saying, no, at the very beginning, you have to end the genocide.You have to end the slaughter in Lebanon and Gaza.

You have to end the war and you have to hand over that money.And then we can go forward because we know that if we start the deal, you when you don't hand them over, we're never going to see our money again.So that is that is one issue.Doha.whether it's Doha or Pakistan or anyone else.The Iranians prefer not to negotiate directly with the United States because the United States, whenever we did negotiate with them directly, it bore no fruit.

It made them more demanding.It made them more aggressive.And later on, they refused to acknowledge many of the promises that they made.For Iran, the best thing right now is for everything to be donepaper.If Trump tomorrow says that I never agreed to end the siege, all they have to do is say your negotiators wrote this down on paper.

We spent a full day in Islamabad, and the two sides were negotiating from morning till night.The Iranian team had experts with them.The chief negotiator was an associate professor at my university, the Speaker of Parliament.On one hand, the deputy head of the Supreme National Security Council, another professor at a different university, the third, the foreign minister, a PhD holder.And then on the other side, you had Vance and you had two real estate agents.And Vance was from morning till night making phone calls to people in Washington and in Israel.

And he had no authority.They were not serious.The Iranian side had experts from the Central Bank.The head of the central bank was there, the Iranian experts in different fields, so that they could solve all the issues.But the Americans were not serious.So the necessity of the two sides sitting together, I don't think really, I don't think there's a necessity for them to sit together.

If the Americans at some point do sign a deal and they abide by the deal, then perhaps in future they could have direct negotiations.But at the moment, all they do is bomb Iran and make threats and Hegde said, After consuming lots of alcohol, he goes on his rants, or at least it seems like he's taking it.I hope he's drinking alcohol, because if he's not and he's talking like this, that's really scary.But, you know, what's the use of speaking to these people directly?

So let me ask you, let's let's say the threats from Trump are real, right?And they're really going to do some sort of an operation and try to take Cargill Island, that they're going to escalate even beyond Trump.already happened overnight.What do you see as the options on the table for an Iranian response?

You know, I've discussed this during the war, during the 39 -day war, on different programs.The Iranians want the United States to enter Iranian territory.They want them to occupy parts of Iran, because that's when they can hit the United States the hardest.When the Americans occupy islands, when they occupy the mainland, then the Iranians will hit.Just as the Iranians have prepared all these underground missile cities and drone cities, an extraordinary achievement, something that military universities will be discussing for decades to come, and all these underground factories and assets and so on, they also made preparations for a land battle as well.Because this whole purpose, the whole purpose of all of this was to defend Iran against an American invasion.

And therefore, when the United States comes in, then the Iranians can strike them with missiles, with drones, with artillery, with ambushes, and so on and so forth.I mean, look at the Israeli regime right now in southern Lebanon.Hezbollah is hitting them very hard, despite the fact that Hezbollah is completely surrounded.You have one proxy of the United States in Syria, ISIS, the al -Qaeda government.You have the government in Beirut, which is a U .S.

proxy.It has no popular mandate.They are trying to squeeze the resistance.They don't allow the refugees from the south to go into different cities and neighborhoods.They're just prevented from moving around in their own country.They won't let aid from Iraq or Iran.

blankets, pens, food, anything to get to them.They want to starve the people.They want to break their will.And then, of course, all of many of these refugees gathered in the southern Beirut.And then Israel wanted to flatten it.And of course, no one in the West cared.

So Iran had to step in.But the point is that the reason why the Israelis are being so genocidal is is because they're in such rage that Hezbollah is hitting them hard across the board in the south.So if Hezbollah can do that to Israel, you can be absolutely certain that Iran, after being able to keep, to defeat the United States literally on the battlefield after 39 days, they can defeat the United States on the ground.What the Iranians want to happen in this war is to make the war so costly for the United States that one year from now, two years from now, five years from now, if someone in the United States says, let's go to war with Iran, everyone says, no, let's not go there.That's not an option.That is Iran's ultimate goal.

Well, Professor, thank you so much for joining us and providing your immediate reaction and analysis.We always value your time.

Thank you, sir.Thank you.Thank you very much.Just one final point.Sure.And that is that I would, you know, as a as a teacher at university, I would advise your audience, and I've said this on other shows, to read some books on Iran.

One is called Going to Tehran by Flint and Hilary LeBret, who worked in the White House, two academics.I think if you invite Hilary LeBret, she would be a good guest, an excellent guest.Another by Alastair Crook, a book called Resistance.They would better understand what resistance means in Iranian culture and in the culture of the axis of resistance.And there's also another very small book by Peter Oborn, who is a conservative.the UK, who wrote about the Iranian nuclear program.

It's a very easy read called Dangerous Delusion.And I think that would be these three books that people read, then they'd have a better understanding of Iran.And I think it's important for people to understand Iran better today.

Well, we have a lot of readers in our audience.We're always getting requests for, you know, what books to read.So I'm sure they will appreciate that.And we appreciate it as well.

Thank you, sir.Appreciate it.Thank you.

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