In this episode, we catch up with a reporter who has been in Iran for the past month and a half. He tells us about some of the major changes that have taken place in Iran since our last episode. He also talks about the recent strike on the Iranian capital, Tehran, as well as a bomb attack on a mosque in Isfahan.
00:00:28.260It's a month later, and it's as if it never happened.
00:00:31.360One of the major differences since we last spoke is the fact that now that there's a $2 million toll to trade oil through the Strait of Hormuz,
00:00:38.880which if people look at over the span of a year, you can make $100 billion.
00:00:45.840Is this something that's affecting the Iranian economy already?
00:00:48.620I don't have any way to measure that or calculate that myself, but I can tell you that, like I said, the only inconvenience for Iranians right now is the Internet.
00:00:56.140There's a lot of, you know, reports coming out that Saudi Arabia is urging the U.S. to destroy Iran.
00:01:03.240I'm inclined to believe it's true just because we know that Saudi Arabia, they feel threatened by Iran and they have been threatened by them for a very long time now.
00:01:10.740The U.S. have fighter jets flying to bomb Iran and they're getting refueled by aerial tankers over Saudi Arabian airspace.
00:01:17.400What else can you tell us about since we last spoke?
00:01:22.140Some, you know, something you've seen that we're not aware of.
00:01:26.140hello hello yeah so you are you're an esfahan which you know in there is prophecy saying that
00:01:37.560in esfahan there will be 70 000 jews that come and support the jaw that's funny but i saw you're
00:01:44.500just with the governor what's funny about that uh no i got nothing to say about that right now but
00:01:52.160Yeah. Yeah. Keep going. Keep going. Well, let's stay up to date. I liked your coverage
00:01:56.380of the holy sites that you're at. So you spoke with the governor and also you just heard a
00:02:04.180bomb strike that was very nearby you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, most of Iran, there's like
00:02:13.880nothing going on. Right. And I've tweeted about this. I posted videos about this. I'm sure you
00:02:17.720saw the video of me in this famous square in Isfahan. It's like an ancient mosque. There's
00:02:23.020like an old bazaar there. It's a really cool historical site. And everyone around there is
00:02:28.620living their lives comfortably. There was an attack nearby. Nobody responded. Nobody was
00:02:32.860afraid. I interviewed little kids and they're like cursing out Trump and they weren't phased
00:02:37.980at all by the bombing. So for the most part, life in Iran is completely normal. But every now and
00:02:45.680hear an explosion the explosion i heard last night which i tweeted about and this is the
00:02:49.920explosion you're referencing that was the loudest and closest explosion to my location and i guess
00:02:56.740it was probably a bigger bomb um because there are all kinds of bombs they can drop right 300
00:03:01.280pounds 500 pounds 2 000 pound bombs this one was really loud like it woke us all up at two in the
00:03:09.320morning and shook the entire building and uh yeah that that was the loudest uh most powerful
00:03:16.120explosion i've experienced since being here but for the most part our life is completely normal
00:03:19.860in iran right now okay so what can you tell us since we last spoke what are the
00:03:24.900the major updates and how was that conversation with the governor
00:03:28.080the conversation with the governor uh was good i mean he so he was giving us a tour of his
00:03:34.620cultural sites which is really cool and he was explaining everything to us and that site that
00:03:40.120historical site i was telling you about is amazing like they got stores selling incredible persian
00:03:47.340carpets different fabrics i mean it's just a great place to get lost i felt like the prince of persia
00:03:53.160or like assassin's creed just walking around there and so he was giving us a tour introducing us to
00:03:57.340like local artists and stuff like that and then he took us to this nice cafe and when we were
00:04:01.980sitting down there we started you know he was giving us his whole like spiel just describing
00:04:06.820isfahan's history and its culture etc etc but then we started talking politics and
00:04:11.300we asked him uh you know because a lot of people have been tweeting at me like hey why don't you
00:04:16.160talk to why don't you talk to people who aren't in support of the government why do you just keep
00:04:21.240interviewing people who who do support the government and so i i did i have spoken to
00:04:27.080people who are not in support of the government but they're not willing to like publish an
00:04:31.500interview and get on camera. And so that's been interesting for me. I asked them, like they all
00:04:38.480say like they're against the war, but they are not happy with this government. And so I took
00:04:44.940that opportunity to ask the governor about it. I said, hey, you know, I've spoken to some people
00:04:49.540who are not supportive of the government. They have these complaints. What is your response to
00:04:53.580that? And we recorded that. So we'll post that on X soon. But yeah, so it was just an interesting
00:04:58.700conversation was an opportunity to kind of hear the good things about espahan from the governor
00:05:02.940but then also pose some difficult questions for him as well and just get you know his raw feedback
00:05:07.580so when can we expect this to come out so my colleague dimitri from reason to resist who's
00:05:15.260also here with me he's a journalist he's a greek journalist who lives in canada he's going to be
00:05:20.220posting that interview any second so when he does i'll tweet it out and i'll send you the link as
00:05:25.900well and you can see that interview discussion you asked for new information so actually there
00:05:30.300was an attack a couple of hours ago and we were gonna go see it but it's raining and it's pretty
00:05:37.820late already we have a long day tomorrow so we're gonna go visit it tomorrow but it's like a village
00:05:42.700or a small town about an hour away from us there was a series of explosions there so some people
00:05:50.940took pictures and they sent it to us apparently the u.s is now dropping landmines on these iranian
00:05:57.500towns so there's a landmine it's called the m70 and you can lay it by hand or they have something
00:06:03.660like it's called a like a remote uh anti-armor mine system so you can drop it from an airplane
00:06:11.660you can fire it in an artillery shell and it'll open up and scatter them all around the area
00:06:16.220which is much more efficient than like one by one dropping it by hand right so apparently they're
00:06:20.700dropping this over villages from fighter jets and that is interesting because either they're just
00:06:28.900trying to terrorize the population because these are random right they just fall and they scatter
00:06:32.800they're called dumb bombs so they're smart enough to like detonate if they detect electromagnetic
00:06:37.720pulse or something like that if it detects like an armored vehicle nearby it'll blow up0.98
00:06:42.080it's smart enough to do that but it's dumb to the extent that it's not precise so they just0.77
00:06:46.200dropped over random people's houses so there was one woman cooking the kitchen and this0.91
00:06:50.260landmines entered her house like through the balcony and blew up and killed her and uh there
00:06:57.360are other other people as well who went to go pick up a mine that did not detonate and it blew
00:07:01.660up and killed them or you know uh cut off their limbs or whatever so we're gonna go visit that
00:07:06.400site tomorrow and document it in greater detail but that's an interesting development because0.92
00:07:10.400it's like what are they dropping it just to terrorize the population uh or are they dropping
00:07:16.500it because they're running low on some of these more precision bombs that they could be dropping
00:07:20.500because the u.s has been claiming iran's the one running low but people have pointed out that
00:07:24.180hey maybe the u.s and israel are actually low not just on air defense but on these specific
00:07:28.580precision bombs so i'm wondering if they're using these mines because they're running low probably
00:07:33.340a bit of both it's according to hex at these saying the only people in iran that should be
00:07:38.040nervous are the ones that think they're they're still going to live and they says yesterday that
00:07:42.560we negotiate with bombs. Trump is saying he's upset that they are now declaring victory and
00:07:49.000that peace will happen because Hexeth wants to keep on bombing. So much of that rhetoric,
00:07:52.520even from Lindsey Graham, is they just want to bomb and destroy Iran completely.
00:07:56.400Equally, it's also a lack of missiles because look at Hexeth, he's asking the Pentagon for
00:08:01.480$200 billion more. They want to terrorize the people, but they don't have the same capabilities
00:08:07.960they had in the beginning of epic fury because why would you drop these landmines now they must0.80
00:08:13.060be short do you think that well okay what is the perception from the Iranian people because Trump
00:08:18.200just had this huge statement he's telling everybody that he's negotiating with the
00:08:22.840leadership in Iran while also saying he killed them all what's going on here is Iran he also
00:08:27.520said that the Iranian leadership gave him a prize a big prize that I'm not going to specify but
00:08:32.080very expensive a nice prize what are the iranians saying about this0.98
00:08:35.460uh they don't buy any of this bullshit um the people are like every night there's a rally0.99
00:08:42.960in this in the cities they have multiple rallies and the people gather and they show their support0.98
00:08:48.580for the government and obviously they show their support for the armed forces and so
00:08:52.980we were just driving around the city and like every few blocks there would be a rally of cars
00:08:58.420in a rally of people like on the sidewalk waving flags they have stages they're giving out free
00:09:02.940tea and ice cream and they play music they they do poetry they obviously chant like death to the0.90
00:09:09.180shah uh so their morale is very high they don't want a ceasefire they want revenge and they say0.96
00:09:15.180this at their their rallies they want revenge and uh their sense is that they're winning
00:09:20.180and so morale is is high and in iran look in iran right now like i said life is mostly normal
00:09:27.680The only inconvenience really that people are currently experiencing in Iran is that they don't have Internet.
00:09:35.320Most people are cut off from the Internet. That is the only real inconvenience.
00:09:40.520So. Morale is is high because they haven't really been that inconvenienced yet.
00:09:46.860Obviously, there you know, there is a chance that you die. But Iran is a big country.0.96
00:09:50.460They're over 90 million people and they have all these you know, they have so many different cities or gigantic cities.
00:09:55.500And so, yeah, there's a one in, I don't know, let's say 1000th chance that you'll die in a bombing, right? So a lot of people are being killed, they're being injured, like up to 100,000 buildings have been damaged across the country in like just a few weeks, right? So that's a lot of damage. But again, it's a massive country with 90 million plus people.
00:10:15.760So the only real inconvenience, again, is the lack of Internet.
00:18:56.240So these are made up borders and populations have just been carved up and split into different countries like the Kurds, for example.0.82
00:19:04.040you know a piece in turkey a piece of iran a piece of iraq deliberately you know the british
00:19:09.680and the french carved it up that way after the collapse of the ottoman empire and so the region
00:19:15.440exists today in such a way where it's designed to produce instability and insecurity which puts
00:19:23.480leaders like saddam hussein in a position where he feels like to secure his national security
00:19:28.340interest for the country of iraq he has to go to war with iran and i'm not trying to justify his
00:19:33.560decision-making. I'm just trying to point out that on a deeper level, the issue in the region
00:19:39.220is colonialism and American imperialism and Zionism. Those forces combined have divided
00:19:46.060and conquered the region, and it just produces insecurity and instability. And that's what
00:19:50.840causes these devastating wars. Right. So pinpointing and blaming on the different leaders
00:19:55.660is looking at it through a microscope instead of seeing the grander scale.
00:20:00.100exactly i think it's too simplistic and it's how we get trapped you know like you posted the other
00:20:07.760day about uh shias or yeah what did you tweet exactly i said shia muslims are keeping the
00:20:16.580alive yeah um and and there was a brother he's a streamer i forget his name i think muhammad he
00:20:23.540does dawah he replied to you um not muhammad hijab there's another guy he's a younger guy
00:20:30.260yeah yeah yeah the land uh yeah the second one what was his name uh muhammad ali muslim lantern
00:20:37.780yeah yeah um that conversation was that that exchange was interesting i think a lot of people
00:20:46.240want to make it about sunni they want to make it about shia they want to make it about iran they
00:20:50.240to make it about syria i think when if when we don't when we look at these things through the
00:20:56.800microscope like you just were describing we get trapped in the weeds and we start arguing and
00:21:01.840debating and then it becomes sectarian and it becomes one big victim uh narrative where everyone
00:21:08.240is talking insisting that they are the victim and the other side are you know they're they're the uh
00:21:14.080it's playing into their hands they want us to be divided and bickering at each other
00:21:17.280and like the perfect example that we can prove is the isis example which is clearly funded by0.90
00:21:23.040massad and cia they admit that now so this was meant to divide the muslim world for so long now
00:21:28.060we realize who was behind it and really the greater intention was to get people focused on0.82
00:21:32.560radical muslims and muslim terrorists and getting you know these regions divided by borders to hate
00:21:37.800each other mission was accomplished if you are feeding into that instead of seeing who's really0.99
00:21:42.000benefiting and who's really creating this division so my point is don't play into their hand right
00:21:46.820now, Iran is fighting back and they're doing a terrific job. So they deserve credit. And they're
00:21:50.880predominantly Shia Muslim. And so all this talk I hear about Shia Muslims being, they did this,1.00
00:21:55.720they did that. What's happening right now? And who's the one fighting back? Especially Trump
00:21:59.200just said in a speech yesterday, he said that Saudi is working with them. So how do you think
00:22:03.440we're supposed to do a line? Well, you know, let's look at who is really defending the Umar0.99
00:22:09.040right now. Who is fighting back against the people trying to genocide us? It's Iran.0.85
00:22:12.880Right. Yeah, exactly. You're right to say that we need to understand that we are playing into their hands. This is a trap that they've set is to divide and conquer us.0.68
00:22:24.600The only thing I would advise you to do, because I think we don't like when people make this sectarian in a negative way, right? But when you say Shia are carrying the Omar, representing the Omar, you're kind of being sectarian, but in a positive way, because you have a positive intention.0.95
00:22:40.840You're saying what the Shia in Iran are doing is right. They are actually resisting U.S. imperialism and Zionism. Right.
00:22:48.760But then that puts these Sunnis like the Muslim lantern in a position where he replies because a lot of Sunnis feel triggered by that because it becomes like us versus them, Shia versus Sunni.0.91
00:22:58.680But actually, who triggered all of this? It was Hamas in Gaza. And they are Sunni. Right.0.89
00:23:04.400So it's not about being Sunni or Shia. It's about the entity you establish or a resistance group, whether it's a non-state like Hamas, that's a non-state entity or a state entity like Iran.
00:23:14.480What is your ethos? Right. So whether you're Sunni or Shia, it doesn't matter.
00:23:18.800It's about are you willing to resist? Or are you identify as the enemy?
00:23:24.620And as he pointed out, you have nations like Saudi Arabia and others that are willing to to not just exist within the American order that, you know,
00:23:33.660sometimes that isn't up to you, right? Like, you're not powerful enough to resist that. Like,
00:23:37.900let's say you're if you're Qatar, like a small little Gulf country. But they go beyond that.
00:23:42.780Unfortunately, they, like you said, Saudi Arabia, Donald Trump, you know, basically coming out and
00:23:47.360saying Saudi Arabia wants us to do it. And now the New York Times has reported, there's a lot of,
00:23:51.320you know, reports coming out that Saudi Arabia is urging the US to destroy Iran. Now, how much of
00:23:57.420that is true? I'm inclined to believe it's true, just because we know that Saudi Arabia has been0.99
00:24:02.080they feel threatened by Iran, and they have been threatened by them for a very long time now. So
00:24:07.720it doesn't surprise me. But, you know, perhaps it's propaganda. We don't know. We need more
00:24:11.620information to confirm it. But you're right to point that out. I mean, it's obvious. We could
00:24:16.620just forget the propaganda coming from the media outlets. Let's look at what's actually happening.
00:24:21.060The U.S. have fighter jets flying to bomb Iran, and they're getting refueled by aerial tankers
00:24:26.360over Saudi Arabian airspace. And those tankers are flying out of Saudi Arabian air bases.
00:24:32.080right there what what u.s base in saudi arabia or it's a saudi arabian base that they're giving
00:24:37.320access to the americans for so those are actions that tell you very clearly that they support the
00:24:42.320war with iran and that's unfortunate now they happen to be sunni but those are that's a that's
00:24:49.940a minority right for the leadership if you look at the entire i'm not even in sense about to say
00:24:53.880that i travel to saudi arabia all the time people say like don't criticize because then it's not
00:24:58.100even criticizing responding to what trump said but they said like you might not be able to travel
00:25:01.720there, blah, blah, blah. I don't want to get into the details, but people understand what I'm
00:25:04.880insinuating. So I'm saying this because I want to encourage the people to unite. And so speaking
00:25:09.660about what's happening in Iran, because you're there, what is the overall idea about Iranian
00:25:14.440leadership? That's something that we're very confused about in America, because they keep
00:25:17.360bragging about regime change, saying they killed the leadership. Then they said they're negotiating
00:25:20.680with the leaders. What do the Iranian people think? Who's in charge of Iran right now?
00:25:25.000so as i understand it iran uh has uh iran has a strong institution or a system that is not
00:25:38.680dependent on one man so the u.s and israel believe that if they kill the supreme leader the entire
00:25:44.140thing would collapse that they would either produce an internal conflict where there would
00:25:48.940be a power struggle by competing forces who want to become the supreme leader and take over the
00:25:53.100country or that the system actually wasn't too strong and that it would just collapse like a
00:25:58.880house of cards well they tested that theory they killed the supreme leader and many other people
00:26:04.520we don't know how many leaders but supposedly the supreme leader wasn't alone he was with other
00:26:09.080people so they killed a lot of people it's like a major decapitation strike and what happened
00:26:14.780it's a month later and it's as if it never happened the iranian system the iranian economy
00:26:20.880the government everything continues to exist and they're fighting back and they're actually doing
00:26:25.340very well and then they killed ali larijani and he was the secretary they killed him in an
00:26:31.280assassination strike as well and what happened it's as if it never happened you know iran's
00:26:36.340continuing to fight back so they have a very strong resilient system i think that's been proven
00:26:41.180that's an objective thing to say i think uh who's in charge i mean apparently the the son of the
00:26:47.860supreme leader much about he has become the supreme leader but i think from what i've heard
00:26:53.220from iranians and what i'm hearing trump say he was injured in the attack that killed his father
00:27:00.220and so he's alive but he's injured and he's injured enough where he's not even coming out
00:27:05.120on camera so so far he's only made like two or three statements and they've been written so
00:27:10.120obviously he's not well enough to put himself on camera but apparently he's the new supreme
00:27:15.460leader. But regardless, it doesn't matter, I think, even if he isn't alive, which could very
00:27:20.840well be the case. Maybe he isn't alive and they just haven't shared that yet. Just like Netanyahu.
00:27:26.020Yeah, potentially like Netanyahu. It wouldn't matter. I think, you know, it would continue.
00:27:31.800Iran and Iran has decentralized itself, like they've made themselves coup proof. And they've0.91
00:27:36.200done this because they understand what U.S. and Israel are trying to do. They want to decapitate.0.86
00:27:40.980So how exactly are they coup proof? Because we know that they've been preparing for this for
00:27:44.600decades, what systems are in place to prevent this regime change? So, for example, one of the
00:27:51.360things they did after the 12-day war, last summer when Israel attacked Iran, it was almost 24 hours
00:27:58.260before Iran could respond. And that was because of a decapitation strike that took out leadership
00:28:03.420that would have directed the armed forces. And there was just like a bureaucratic kind of hold
00:28:09.840up or whatever and so for that reason the orders didn't come down top down fast enough this time
00:28:15.580what they did in preparation for that understanding that the intention was to decentralize them and
00:28:20.080potentially produce a coup they gave their orders preemptively to units in the army in the aerospace
00:28:29.360forces or whatever forces are responsible for firing drones and the missiles and they split
00:28:33.980them up into units and they gave them orders and they carry out their mission regardless of whether
00:28:38.880or not they receive orders telling them to do this or to do that so that way they guarantee
00:28:43.460that even if they decapitated and they somehow got a guy that was like okay let's make peace
00:28:48.320the entire army has their orders and they're like no we're not making peace we're fighting back
00:28:52.680so it's not even like someone could you know like the massad could take out everyone and then they
00:28:58.740get their guy and he becomes the new leader and he goes he says okay guys let's stop fighting i
00:29:02.620don't even think he would have the power to do that so it's kind of like a dead hand strategy
00:29:06.280basically and so that's just one way they've decentralized the army in such a way where
00:29:11.140they're going to fight regardless with or without their orders um but they've also split it up like
00:29:17.200the supreme leader understood that they would probably kill him and so he created layers
00:29:21.680layers and layers of succession so he said if i die you know it should go to this this person
00:29:27.940should lead that person should lead that person should lead over and over and over again and he
00:29:31.560several layers of that. And so that was another method of having continuity. If he's killed and
00:29:38.820the next four guys are killed, people understand where leadership is going to lie. And, you know,
00:29:45.300another thing is, like, you look what happened in Venezuela. Somebody folded, right? Somebody
00:29:50.120folded. Somebody gave up Maduro. Maduro, like, now he's sitting in jail. So Trump felt like,
00:29:55.720oh, okay, it must be that easy with Iran as well. And I'm not criticizing Venezuela. I don't know,
00:30:00.520like i'm not saying that they're not committed to the revolution they're not committed to their
00:30:04.280government's mission i don't know we know just not on iran's level we do know the commitment is
00:30:09.600not like it's not it's exactly it's not and there's a lot of differences in like terms of
00:30:14.040geography and military capabilities there's a lot of differences but the point is like you said
00:30:18.620they're not on iran's level so trump thought he was going to have somebody in iran would sell out
00:30:23.060basically and it's not that there aren't sellouts it's just at this higher level people really i
00:30:27.960think underestimate the islamic revolution what it meant to these people what they fought for what
00:30:33.180they struggled for for so long i mean think about it they've been under sanctions for 45 years
00:30:39.000plus yet they've developed this beautiful society that i've witnessed with my own two eyes
00:30:43.940like this is a well-developed country people take the train from city to city they take the subway
00:30:51.340within the cities they have access to health care they have access to mass mass transportation their
00:30:56.740cities are beautiful their historical sites are preserved and they got a badass military and they
00:31:03.040made their own social media apps they have all kinds of things they develop their own they pride
00:31:08.200themselves on standing on their own two feet and they do that under sanctions so you have to have
00:31:11.800some kind of ideological commitment right that uh that drives that right and so that's the difference
00:31:17.620between iran venezuela and that's where i think trump miscalculated the main thing uh one of the
00:31:21.720major differences since we last spoke is the fact that now that there's a two million dollar toll
00:31:26.200to trade oil through the Strait of Hormuz,
00:31:29.400which if people look at over the span of a year,
01:00:38.280what else are they hiding from us that you don't know you have to take them out like why is it
01:00:40.840taking so long just take it all out go for it you're take it all out take it all out is he also0.97
01:00:44.400jewish let me know just take it all out just nuke him slowly doing this mission take every0.95
01:00:50.400because that we can't don't like i don't like that for them to try to look at his face too like they0.99
01:00:53.680look uglier i don't recommend people go the neocon route like maybe you'll make money but it just
01:00:58.880leaves something on your face and your soul that you can't repair you don't look well then they
01:01:04.040know where every missile is they know what every capability is they need to just do it if i know
01:01:07.180for a fact that that's the truth get it over with destroy it so destroy it what happened to the
01:01:11.960liberation that was a narrative three weeks ago and everyone seems to have forgotten but you know
01:01:18.680look how easy it is to ratio pbd over and over again this post here pbd like people like oh it's
01:01:22.980one of the biggest podcasts in the world you're mad that they won't have you on yeah bro look 2k
01:01:26.780likes i just put a dot with 7.4 it's so easy bro every day every day if we know nobody likes
01:01:33.100100 percent they have long-range missiles other stuff for my tweets before we cover the news and
01:01:38.060also i'm looking forward to this propaganda co-interview um i haven't when i was sick i
01:01:46.020was been doing a lot more research on malcolm x and watching his speeches back
01:01:48.700it was funny because you know i'll be transparent when academics yesterday or last stream was saying
01:01:56.040what do you what's your call to action what do you do because i don't just want to be a streamer
01:02:00.320right now you know i do want to transcend that obviously before and even then you know i'm a
01:02:05.040filmmaker and stuff but there is a lack malcolm x's his role has not been filled ever since he
01:02:12.000was assassinated not saying i'm not trying to be become but for somebody to unite american muslims
01:02:18.060being that a focus on that especially amidst all this propaganda don't turn into a fashion designer
01:02:25.560Yeah, well, you know where I think my goal is, where maybe I could be effective, is trying to be unifying to American Muslims the way Malcolm X was.