Where Will the Coming Iran War Negotiations Lead? (w/ Mohammad Marandi) | The Chris Hedges Report
6/15/202640 min
As the global economy teeters on the brink of a major crisis, the United States, with the aid of the Pakistani government, is once again attempting to finalize an agreement to end the war on Iran that could be signed this weekend. There are still many steps that must be taken before there can be a complete cessation of US/Israeli hostilities on Iran, but as oil reserves dwindle, time is running out. And, of course, even if a deal is signed, it remains to be seen whether the United States and Israel will violate it.
In this episode, Chris Hedges speaks with Professor Mohammad Marandi, who is a former adviser to Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, about the status of a peace agreement and how the war on Iran has reshaped the geopolitical configuration of the Middle East. Dr. Marandi notes that the power dynamics have shifted in Iran’s favor since the Twelve Day War on Iran last year, which is a significant change from the environment during the negotiations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015.
Professor Marandi states that Iran has surprised and impressed the world and even its own population with its successful military strategy in the current conflict. Now, Iranians are, for the most part, confident that they can win the war and are unwilling to make significant concessions to the US and Israel. Marandi recounts how Iranians, who view this as “a war for their survival” are undaunted. He describes the Iranian culture as one of resilience and deeply embedded resistance. Iranians are also resolute in their support for Palestinians and the Lebanese people.
Hedges and Marandi discuss the failure of many Arab states to counter the Zionist vision of a Greater Israel and its brutal attacks on Gaza and Beirut, calling their leaders “traitors”. They predict that the Israeli regime won’t survive after this, describing “the war between Trump and Iran [as] a historical moment and probably the most important event in world affairs in recent decades.”
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First 90 secondsChris Hedges· Host0:00
[ on-hold music] Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced today that a peace deal between the United States and Iran was, quote, "Likely expected to be finalized within twenty-four hours," although the Iranian Foreign Ministry said a deal might take a few more days to formalize. Despite Iranian losses and the economic crisis the war has triggered in Iran, with an estimated two hundred and seventy billion in war damage, none of the US and Israeli objectives have been met. The Iranian state has not collapsed. The new Iranian leadership, centered around the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, remains defiant. Iran has control over the Strait of Hormuz, where some twenty percent of the world's oil and natural gas supplies transit. It charges as much as two million dollars, usually paid in Chinese currency, for oil tankers to transit through the strait. The world economy, if the strait is not open soon, is headed for the cliff, perhaps within weeks, with strategic reserves in countries such as Japan and the United States, which have been used to buttress the oil shortages, being rapidly depleted. Rising gas and oil prices across the globe, gas prices in the US are thirty-four percent higher than a year ago and diesel has ridden-- risen by over fifty percent, are compounded by shortages of vital products such as