Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks so much for joining us this Daniel, and welcome to Estulin.Media. For decades, Iran has stood at the center of one of the great geopolitical struggles of the modern era, a civilization caught between empire and sovereignty, between memory and modernity, between isolation and resurgence to the west. Iran is often reduced to headlines, sanctions, nuclear negotiations, proxy wars, ideology, the mullahs. But beneath the surface exists a far more profound story the story of an ancient civilization that refuses to disappear inside the architecture of the unipolar world. Now from the CIA backed coup back in 1953 to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, from decades of sanctions and isolation to the emergence of Iran as a transregional power shaping the future of West Asia. Iran\u2019s trajectory has become inseparable from the broader crisis of the American led order itself. But what is the real Iran beyond propaganda and caricature? This is the kinds of things we want to talk about today. How did a nation, under permanent pressure, transform itself into one of the most strategically resilient states in the world? What did the wars of nine of 2025 and 2026 reveal about the balance of power in the Middle East, and how are we witnessing not simply a regional conflict, but the irreversible transition from unipolar to multipolar civilization? And so today, we speak with Iranian diplomat and geopolitical analyst Amed Ghashghavi about the hidden historical forces shaping modern Iran, and also psychological foundations of resistance, the decline of Western hegemony, and the return of Persia as a civilizational Actor in a fragmented world. Order. Hamid, thank you so much for joining us. It\u2019s wonderful to have you on the show after so many years of speaking to you, via Google and telephone, etc.,<\/p>\n
Thank you Daniel. thank you for having me. I\u2019m following you your works for years. I mean, since I have contacted you, coming back to you some years ago to be invited in one of our conferences. Your book, The True Story Behind the Bilderberg, actually got a lot of attention of myself and colleagues here. And just to rectify something, I\u2019m not a diplomat, meaning I\u2019m not a diplomat. My father is a diplomat.<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s true. Yeah. But the fact that US Treasury Department sanctioned me at the age of 29 means that something that we are doing by the name of public diplomacy or soft power, so just to rectify that.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s get right into this because when people are in the West speak about Iran, they often begin with the story in 1979 with the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini. But perhaps the real beginning is 1953. So how do Iranians see the that moment historically?<\/p>\n
Thank you for your very actually enriching question. So if you would like to look at Iran you know, Daniel, what is the difference between a historian and a journalist? So a journalist only sees yesterday, today and tomorrow maybe. Right. But, , historiography is very important. And that\u2019s the job of, I mean, the historians and the researcher in. History related affairs. So when we look at Iran, we have to understand the history of Iran As a nation, as a civilization, as you said, as one of the most, , actually old ancient civilization across the globe. And so what if you would like to understand today at least, , I mean, five, six, maybe centuries ago, if you look at Iran, we see that the eyes of great powers have always been on Iran. And why? Because, , so in South East, , actually Asia, Southwest Asia, sorry. , that\u2019s a very geographically important point, which connects somehow three continents. So we have Asia, Africa, and Europe. And the other side, we have the Mediterranean Sea in North Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and south of Europe. And we, we know for a fact that, , for years what have been said in the Western media about the history of the science in the Western Hemisphere. Some some part of it was a kind of lie and not true. Why? Because we knew that in the age of enlightenment and the middle age. So we had a very famous Iranian and a Muslim actually, , scientists who went to Europe.<\/p>\n
, so we have, , Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd and many others. And at that time, coming back to almost a thousand years ago, we had, , if I\u2019m not mistaken, Frederick Frederick the Second, , who was the actually the King of Prussia. And when I mean, Muslims were there in south of Europe, in north of Africa. Andalus actually, if you go today in south of Italy, in south of Spain, you see a lot of sign of Muslim presence coming back to some centuries ago and when they have been defeated, , actually that Prussia, king by the name of, Frederick the Second, , transferred his, , actually governance, the capital, , from Frankfurt to Sicily. Why? Because Muslims and Muslim, scientists were there, and he said that. Don\u2019t go. He said that Muslim scientists, he said, don\u2019t go anywhere. And I will, , actually provide you whatever you need and continue to produce sciences. It happened before the middle middle age in Europe. And right now, so what we know by the name of Renaissance, , the Renaissance, what happened in Europe and after that, the industrial revolution in the UK, many of the sciences. And that\u2019s something proven by the fact, , which has been transferred and translated into European and Latin languages became came actually from Farsi and Arabic language. But by the way, at that time, the language of science in the Muslim world was, was Arabic anyhow. So we let me ask.<\/p>\n
You let me ask you. Let me ask you a question because we got a little bit off topic. Okay. So if we look. Because again, you have to remember that for the Western audience, we have, followers in 42 countries. Most of them get their information from what they see on television or social media, which is for the most part controlled by, you know, by Western intelligence agencies, the deep state, etc.. If we look at three rads or n, mossadegh\u2019s Iran in 1953, ayatollahs, Iran in 1979, and today\u2019s Iran. What are the differences between these three? Iran\u2019s. How has Iran changed over the past 80 years?<\/p>\n
Yeah, Just I less than a minute. I tried to finish the last part. What I said that what I said that the background is very important because we know today that they have been a lot of actually ties between Iranian and even actually Greek philosophers at that time. So the philosophy of Averroes and others, they have been connected a lot. But the issue is, so Iran was known in Europe for centuries. , so this is something new. But the fact that Iran as a big country right now, we are talking about Iran in 2026, half of of Europe, I mean, the superficial of Iran. And then so we have a lot of, I mean, resources in Iran. , the, , great market, , is, , that that country 19 actually 90, , million people living in. To is when we talk about. So to understand Iran, we have to understand the First and Second World War, the Second World War, after the Second World War, the power equation has been somehow changed. The power from the British Empire has been transferred to American empire. And the one who made that deal, the deal breaker, were the the series. So there\u2019s a very detailed issue. I\u2019m not going into that. But the issue is coming back to.<\/p>\n
Yeah, we\u2019re going to talk about the Zionism and Israel later. But again, let\u2019s go back.<\/p>\n
To the issue is coming back to to UK and the US. So Iran, as much as a great country, has never been colonized as Tunisia was by France, Algeria was Morocco, some other African countries by the UK, by actually Netherland, but Iran, , somehow, , have been affected By the impact of these empires. I mean the British American at that time going back to Soviet Union. , but has never been colonized officially. And the power of, of the Farsi language, the official language of Iranians, you know, in India coming back to, , almost a century ago, the official language of Indians were Farsi. And after the British colonized India, the official language became actually, , English. But the issue is the power of culture. And civilization is very important for Iranian people and nation for centuries to keep themselves as a united society. So coming back to what you said in 1953, , the CIA actually right now that\u2019s proven that declassified information that they, , orchestrated the coup against the democratically elected government of Mossadegh. So you see how Iran was a very actually, , by at that time, very developed country in society, in that region in the Middle East. And what is very important is the fact that we cannot deny at that time, even right now, we are talking in the region about those countries in the region and the Arab countries in the Gulf, Persian actually region, that they do not have a parliament, a parliament, they do not have an election.<\/p>\n
But the issue very important issue is coming back to almost seven decades ago, Iran, , voted democratically for, , a government, Mohammad Mossadegh, who was a lawyer, and he has been overthrown by the Americans. So, , right now, for the people saying that Iranian revolution made problem with America, Iranian revolution happened, , just, , almost 30 years before that who orchestrated orchestrated by the CIA, which has. We had nothing to do with Iranian revolution. Somehow, if you would like to call. Iranian revolution was a kind of counter reaction, actually. Counteraction and a true reaction to what Americans have been doing in Iran for for years. So we know that by the fact that even after Iranian revolution succeeded American embassy in Iran, which later has been actually taken over by the students, , was doing all the spying system. I went to the current American embassy. I\u2019m a former American embassy, which is currently, , in the hand of Iranian Revolutionary Guards and students following the Iranian Revolutionary Guard organization. I went there with one medicine, one medicine, worked in NSA and is an investigative journalist. And he told me.<\/p>\n
That medicine is actually a good friend of mine.<\/p>\n
Yeah, yeah. And so when we went there, um, Mattson told me, , these are the most sophisticated spying system at the time we had in the United States. And the American embassy in Iran was a kind of mother embassy. The, , actually ways of spying. We could go through 800km, meaning, , actually, , abroad, even outside of Iranian borders.<\/p>\n
So let me let me stop you for a second. Let me stop you for a second. , let\u2019s let\u2019s look at the big picture. I want you to explain because again, , those of us who live in the West, we only get our information from Western media. Tell me the difference between Iran back in 1953, Iran in 1979, and today\u2019s Iran. These are three different countries. Okay. How has Iran evolved over the past 80 years?<\/p>\n
Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we can use the the word evolve. I mean, evolution is much better than three different countries because yeah, once again, historically.<\/p>\n
A country, I mean, like the three different, maybe not countries, three different societies the way the country, you know. So yeah. How has the country evolved?<\/p>\n
Exactly. That\u2019s why I\u2019m insisting on the history. And I gave you that historical background because if someone is an expert on Iranian studies and iranology, , he or she can understand how the evolution happened, , I mean, in all these years. But just to finish what I have been saying, when a student take over the embassy, those working in the inside of United States Embassy in Iran, they have been actually destroying all the documents which have later become the proof that they have been doing study inspiring in its long history. But the issue is, at that time, Iranian society was a very, , comparing to other societies in the region, very, , actually developed country, , in that region. And once again, , why I gave you the historical background because that\u2019s connected to the history historiography of Iranian society. We have never been a kind of, , actually not developed country comparing to other, , countries in neighborhood of Iran.<\/p>\n
But Iran is not Saudi Arabia. Iran is not Afghanistan is not is not even simply Islamic. Iran is a civilisational state. That\u2019s what people have to understand because Persian civilization. Yes, yes, several thousand years old and Iranian.<\/p>\n
What Islam actually. So we have Islam for, , 1400 years ago. Okay. So but before that we had Iranian Persian civilization. What is the mixture of these great. Comic made Iranian Islam a kind of different. Made it, I mean local and Aboriginal. Of Iranians. And that\u2019s why that\u2019s somehow different with what we see as ISIS. I mean, Islamic State, Daesh called in Syria and actually Iraq. I mean, Saudi Arabia right now. I mean, coming back to 20 years ago, I watched the debate between Tariq Ramadan at that time with a a Swiss politician who was saying Saudi Arabia at that time, , was spending, , $6 million, $12 billion per year for spreading Wahhabism. So Wahhabism and Salafism, this kind of takfiri and very extremist radicalist type of Islam, which has nothing to do with actually, , Islam in Iran. And that\u2019s the work of the media in the West because they would like to mix everything they would like to say Khomeini and Hassan Nasrallah and Ali Khamenei are similar with, , actually, , bin laden.<\/p>\n
Terrorists and al Qaeda.<\/p>\n
Isis and so on.<\/p>\n
And I think what people have to understand is that Iranian identity contains pre-Islamic Persia, Shiite metaphysics, poetry, philosophy, martyrdom, culture, nationalism, anti-imperial memory, and also modern technological ambition all at the same time. Iran is multi complex, and Western analysts often fail because they search for ideological purity. Iran doesn\u2019t function through purity. It functions through layered, , historical synthesis and even the Islamic revolution.<\/p>\n
Exactly. You\u2019re right.<\/p>\n
Correct me if I\u2019m wrong.<\/p>\n
You know what? You really I appreciate your that part of your analysis because, you know, the Western media would like to make everything binary zero one black and white, good and bad. And in order to make that, in order to simplify everything. So Iran is a very complicated and complex society. So we if you would like to understand it, it\u2019s not as easy as said by the mainstream media in the West. So in order to make all the bad guys. So they have to say Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, and in Libya, they have been all in the same as French people saying, okay, I\u2019m putting all in the same package, which has nothing to do. I mean, these societies I\u2019m in the region are very complicated society. For example, take the example of Iraq, very different with Iran, very different with Syria and Lebanon and Afghanistan. And so I\u2019m talking about the real countries. So once again, we have countries right today as Emirates and Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which coming back to, I mean, , 70, 80, 90 years ago were not really country by the name. And so we know that Iran for free, at least we have the historical fact right now that between 3.5 and 7 000 years, we know the name of Iran, , actually been down. So the issue is at that time of Mosaddegh, Iran was a democratic society.<\/p>\n
And they made that choice, which was actually, , overthrown by the CIA. And then what? Actually the time of revolution came. We choose to be an independent nation. So here is an issue. If I tell you today, I mean, if Iran today recognize Israel, everything is okay. If if, , in Iran, we don\u2019t have actually, um, any freedom for women if if that\u2019s the case. So if we don\u2019t have gays in Iran, , as saying, by the mainstream media. While I know people here, I mean lesbians and gay, I know some of them. So which is not, , actually nothing to do with what is said by the mainstream media. But the issue is that, , coming back to some years ago when Nicolas Sarkozy was the president of France, he traveled to Saudi Arabia and he said, let\u2019s Saudi Arabia, Saudi, Arab, Democratic Saudi Arabia as a model democratic model for other countries in the region. The country, which at the time had no election even right now in which women had no right to even drive a car. So comparing to Iran has nothing to do but the issue. The only issue is if you choose to be an independent nation, whether in the region, in our region, in the Middle East and what we don\u2019t call it, I mean, Middle East, because Iranian the late Supreme Leader said we don\u2019t accept the term Middle East.<\/p>\n
We are in Southwest Asia. Why? Because Middle East and Far East. And actually. So we have there is a third one, a Middle East, Far East and the third one, they have been defined by the British Empire at that time to be middle and far and close, which. So we don\u2019t we don\u2019t use their terminology. So we are in the South West Asia. But the issue is, if you choose to be an independent nation here to keep your actually oil and gas reserves and so on. So you have to pay the price. And if you would like to have your own word to be an independent country and government and actually nation, they are going to make a lot of stories about you. They are going to every single day. So I\u2019m telling you, if we actually resolve, , so for 30 years, Iran is negotiating about nuclear issue. If you wanted to have the nuclear bomb, that\u2019s very easy because we have the whole technology from A to Z, but that\u2019s based on a religious. , jurisprudence. , actually view, which has nothing to do with the international geopolitical actually equation. You know what? Iran is challenging the whole international community. And when exactly when I\u2019m saying what I\u2019m saying, when I\u2019m saying international community. So, , we mean by that community, , six, I mean five, six countries having nuclear bombs and so on.<\/p>\n
Iran saying Iran is saying, I\u2019m challenging you without nuclear bomb. Okay, that\u2019s what it was. Because if you want it, it was very easy. So the issue is I\u2019m giving you the example. If we say that, okay, Iran resolved the nuclear question with the West, okay, tomorrow they will talk about women. Right after that, they will talk about missiles. After that, they will talk about why LGBT they don\u2019t have a gay pride in Iran, so they will not finish until you surrender and until you are a dependent nation. While. If you are. If you are an independent nation every single day, I mean billions and billions and billions of dollars on daily basis, 24 over seven are spent in order to say a lot of stories about Iran, which is not true. I was living abroad, you know, I my father was Iranian diplomat. I was not living in Iran. But when I came to Iran, I had another image of Iranian society. Can you believe me? As an Iranian? I saw a society, developed society which has nothing to do with the image that many media in the West put in the mind of, of, of, of myself as an Iranian living abroad, being far from the country for some years.<\/p>\n
So I can tell you many American and European friends of us, when they come to Iran, really, they realize all the lies, even those who are anti-war, anti-Israeli, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist. When they travel to Iran for the first time, They are really surprised, including Professor Norman Finkelstein. Including many other American and European voices we have invited to Iran. And by the way, you know, if you ask me the question, Hamid, why you have been sanctioned. You know, I\u2019m a researcher, kind of a political activist. So why I have to be sanctioned at the state level? Because the Treasury Department of the United States has two level of sanctions. So we have a specially national designated and we have a specially designated global terrorists, which is SGDT, which is my level. Why? Because we have been inviting people from the Western Hemisphere to Iranian universities, and they have been talking and that exchanges bothered CIA and Treasury Department. Why? Because they had another version of nine over 11. They had another version of the US foreign policy. They have been critical of US foreign policy in the Middle East, and they have seen Iranian youth have been impacted by these people who have been invited from the Western Hemisphere. Why? Because we all know that in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia, we love a little bit of the West. We love Oxford.<\/p>\n
Let me let me stop you. Let me stop saying that.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m I\u2019m finishing that. So. And because even in Iran, we have the Westernization issues, the Westernization problem of the society, Americanization problem of the society. In Europe, we. In France we say that la Societe francaise et une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Americanize. The French society is very Americanized society. So we know the whole Europe. For years the identity of Europe have been destroyed by the American hegemony. But coming back to the example of Iran, the issue is that when white people like you or other Western actually people. Voices to Iranian universities, even Iranian youth, who is somehow impacted, influenced by the Western ministry media, who has the American dream in his mind? Who has the Eiffel and Paris from actually French society in his mind as a dream when he or she Iranian young see and actually talk, sees and talks with those people like you who come to Iran, who talk about the realities of the Western Hemisphere and Western society. They really change their mind. So they have some of them they have a dream of, I\u2019m in the Paradise of Europe, of the United States. They don\u2019t have anything, , to, , they don\u2019t understand anything about the economic, economic crisis in Europe and the Western Hemisphere. But when the people like you come to Iran and talk to these young people, they there is a great influence. And that\u2019s why we have been sanctioned.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s, let\u2019s, let\u2019s, let\u2019s move on to the wars of 2025 and 2026, because many analysts, um, now speak about the 12 day war of 2025 as a turning point in the Middle East. From Iran\u2019s perspective, what changed over the past year?<\/p>\n
, baby, you know, for, , the, the, the intelligence of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Khamenei was that he postponed, , confrontation between us and Iran for 25 years. The true story is that coming back to the time of George W Bush, the son, , in the beginning of 2000. So we we in Iran, we had, , that rumors saying that there is a possibility that us attack Iran. We know by the fact that General Wesley Clark said in an interview with, , me, Goodman, that 12 days after nine over 11, he went to Pentagon and he understood, and some colleagues told him that they have the plan to attack Iraq. So we are talking about, , 12 days after nine over 11, 2001, Iraq was attacked in 2003 and some other I mean, a week later, he went back to to Pentagon and some colleague showed him a memo from the Office of Defense Secretary, and he said, here is a plan of how we are going to attack, , seven countries in five years, starting with, I mean, Afghanistan, , and then Iraq and Syria and Libya and Sudan, and then finishing with Iran, something like that. It\u2019s available on Google if you Google. General Wesley Clark. Amy Goodman so the issue is they had that plan. They had that plan. And Iran, I mean, at that time, US Army was very strong. So US Army, some somehow occupied the west and east of Iran. The left and right side of Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n
And Iran was the masterpiece. But the issue is with the intelligence of Iranian late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. He played that role of. He played that game by the name of. Known in the western Western media by the name of Iranian strategic patience. What does it mean? So taking the example of Syria, the the terrorist group there going back to almost 13 years ago, 2011, 2012. So Iran went there by the request of the government in order to fight with these terrorist groups. So what happened? Israel provoked Iran many, many, many times in Syria and in Iraq. So by actually attacking and by killing some generals and actually military faces there. But Iran did not react. So we had 2011, 1213 till I mean, Almost, , maybe five years ago, , to, , 5 or 6 years ago when they assassinated Iranian. , I mean, internationally known, , General Soleimani, Kassam Soleimani, who was known to be actually a hero for all these anti-terrorist group in the region. So, and we know by the fact that Hillary Clinton said in her book Hard Choices and many others, and even Trump, , actually confessed in the presidential debate that the US and Obama created ISIS and Daesh. The issue is after that, Iran reacted. , but the reaction was not something very strong. Iran attacked the US military bases in Iraq, , in al Assad. But it was the first time after second War or second, , World war that a country attacks a US military bases somehow attack the US.<\/p>\n
So after that we had coming back to two years ago after. So. So you\u2019re not Daniel. In the contemporary political history of the globe, we have two day, two days that the world cannot come back before these two days. The first one is nine over 11. The second one is October 7th. So after what happened in October 7th and all these massacres, I mean, we know all by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. , so and then they, they, they, , they attacked Iranian consulate in, in Damascus, in Syria. So Iran reacted by attacking Israel, but it was it was not it was not something strong after that. So they kill I mean, , , Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the resistance in Lebanon and, um, who was a kind of regional leader. And then they killed, , actually the Palestinian resistance leader in Tehran. Ismail Haniya. But Iran, in all these, I, I\u2019m I\u2019m coming to that war in 2025 in all these, . Action from Israel and reaction from Iran. So but of course, supported by Israel but supported by the US, Iranian reaction was not really something tough, wasn\u2019t something very serious. So when , the win. So in Iran, we have been prepared for that for 47 years, you know, because we knew that being an independent nation, being strong in academia, in sciences, in technology, in military will not be tolerated, tolerated by the US empire in its puppet in the region, which is Israel. I mean.<\/p>\n
That that that let me, let me let me stop you for a second. Let me give you my my view. And then you can tell me, you know, if I\u2019m right or add something else. I think from my perspective, I think what the war, the first and the second award last year and this year\u2019s war demonstrated several realities. First, that the era of uncontested Israeli escalation is over. Second, the American security architecture in the region doesn\u2019t exist. It\u2019s all it\u2019s a figment of imagination. And third, the mythology of unilateral deterrence, you know, began to crack. And I think, perhaps most importantly, the conflict revealed that Iran\u2019s power is no longer geographic alone. It\u2019s networked because Iran today operates through, um, what I would call trans regional depth. In other words, its influence stretches not because it occupies territories in the classical colonial sense, because, , but because it built political, military, ideological, logistical relationship across West Asia over decades. I think that, at least from my perspective, is what you know, that what as a result of the of the 12 day war and as a result of what happened in February 28th, 2026. I think these are the consequences.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re right. I mean, Iran is the master of playing with non-state actors. So we talk about, I mean, these healthy, healthy people Ansar Allah in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hashd Al-shaabi in Iraq, and the popular resistance in Iraq, in Syria. So all these I mean, in different countries, these resistant group, I mean, Hamas in Palestine, US, if you look at the history, when Hezbollah in Lebanon was created, Hezbollah in Lebanon was created years before Israel attacked an occupied part of Lebanon. Look at the historiography of Hamas and Palestine when Hamas was created. After a lot of years of attack and offenses by Israeli against Palestinian civilians. So look what happened in Yemen. Or if you look at the history of resistant groups across the globe internationally, whether in Latin America or east of actually Asia, all the resistant groups have been created in reaction. That\u2019s something reactionary of something. So what you have been saying is very true because, , Iran created that network. And once again, what happened in that war. So we knew that that confrontation we cannot is inevitable. We cannot actually avoid unavoidable. We cannot avoid that confrontation between Iran and the US and Israel. So with Israel, it happened in actually June, if I\u2019m right, in June 2025. So what happened was so and you know why they both wars, , actually began once on on Friday, another one on, on Saturday because they are stupid enough to not understand. The whole Iranian regime change can happen. So why? Because international energy market opens on Monday, right? So they have the weekend. And we know right now that every week Trump threatened Iran on actually Friday and Saturday and saying, I am giving them two days of actually time in order to change their view and, , in on, on, on Monday. He\u2019s saying, I\u2019m giving, I changed my view. I\u2019m giving them, they call me and they told me give us some other days and so on. Please, Mr..<\/p>\n
President, don\u2019t bomb us. Please, please.<\/p>\n
Yeah. So the issue the issue is the first actual confrontation with Israel happened in 2025, and it was Iran become a kind of international hero. Why? Because for two years after October 7th in 2023, Israel massacred more than 70,000 Palestinian innocent kids and women and actually men. And it was something which I mean, it was a kind of live genocide on camera, on a smartphone everywhere in the Western Hemisphere. We have seen a lot of rallies, people protesting against Israel in the Western Hemisphere and these people. And it became that that clip became very viral in the 12 day wars between Iran and Israel. , from many actually, you users and on and actually on, on Twitter and TikTok. Iran just do it. Iran do it. Why? Because many French, Italian, German, European, American citizens. They have been for two years angry, fucking angry of Israel massacring people. And they were enjoying looking at Iran, actually firing all these missiles to Israel. So but the issue is that on the first day they have. And what they have done on that first year was that on the first day, was that something very easy? They have planned for that for years. They said it directly and indirectly because in the first day, even for myself and many colleagues, was a shock because they have assassinated almost 13 military leaders and Iranian nuclear scientists.<\/p>\n
But what other stupid issue is for them to not understand Iranian society is that Iranian nuclear scientists in Iran is local. We have the whole technology. If you kill all Iranian nuclear scientists, they are new. They are going to study more and more in Iranian nuclear physics, nuclear. And we have. But just for your information, after coming back to 20 years ago, they assassinated many Iranian nuclear scientists after one single assassination by Mossad and CIA. They. We had more. Request of Iranian student in Iranian university to study nuclear scientists. Okay, so that\u2019s the kind of society and nation Iran is. But the issue is, on that first day, coming back to that war in June 2025, the first day was Friday. So they made that operation around, , maybe, , 3 a.m., something like that, 3 to 4 a.m.. And, , so we heard the news and in the morning, , but Iran, , reacted the first night before even 24 hours. So Iran began to fire missiles. And you know what, what is very important, Daniel, to understand maybe interesting for your audience. The American military, Israeli military, these are hero heroes of classic wars. So what classic wars means? You have actually 505, actually 100,000 soldiers. , the other side has maybe, , 700 helicopters. I don\u2019t know anyhow, but the issue is the statistics and everything is is clear.<\/p>\n
The classic war is we are on that side, and the other side is enemy. But Iran is the master of asymmetrical warfare, meaning that that great U.S. Army hero of classical war hero of all these Hollywood movies, the actually the the one who kind of survives the whole world. What actually, these two Israeli and American classic armies come to the caves of Afghanistan to the south of Lebanon to complicate the society of Iraq to a 100 kilometer actually square of of of Gaza in Afghanistan, after 20 years, they give it back to Taliban and Iraq. In Iraq, very complicated society. They didn\u2019t succeed in south of Lebanon. They didn\u2019t succeed in in Gaza after two years in that 300 kilometer square, they have been forced to negotiate with Hamas in order to release the hostages. Why? Because the specificity, specificity of that region is asymmetrical warfare. So Iran began firing missile, but in a very intelligent manner. And at that time, the supreme leader was the head of that war room, as we call it. So in the first night, Iran fires, maybe, I don\u2019t know, just giving you some example, , in order to understand that it was not very actually very exact numbers in the first let\u2019s stay.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s stay to the big picture. Okay. Let\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s I\u2019m finished. I\u2019m finished. So in the first in the first night run, maybe five, 20, 25, , actually, , missiles. And then, , the second day, third day, fourth, fourth day, , 50 and then five and then maybe ten. So, you know, we played with numbers. So it\u2019s really American. Said Iran went out of missiles and drones. Okay. Something other is very important that Iranian drones changed the whole scene of that war in the war college in the whole Western hemisphere. Right now, they are studying with such method and methodology. Iranians were fighting back. And that June 2025, 12 days war from the day four and five, And one had the upper hand versus Israel and the US. And we know by the fact that Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs. We have the letters and all the calls by the Gulf countries and the Persian Gulf countries and European countries in order to stop the war. It was the day five, but Iran said, no, I\u2019m going to continue and will continue till the day 12 and that that day, 90% of Iranian missiles have been touching the target. But we knew that that job for them is not finished. And we knew that they are going to continue. So they and Trump said that and confess it. They armed some group came back to some actually five month ago, they made a kind of civil war in Iran. It actually lasted two days. So in these two days, almost 3000 people have been killed in Iran. Iranian government published the national ID and first and last name of these 3000 people in the Western media. They said 40 5000 people have been killed by Iran.<\/p>\n
We know. We know they lie. Okay. Look, we we have about seven minutes left. I want to change registers. I want to talk about Israel. Okay. Because if we don\u2019t talk about Israel, people are going to say, oh, he\u2019s not covering Israel. You know, the Western narrative often presents Iran exclusively through the lens of, you know, hostility towards Israel. Iran hates Israel, the anti-Semitic. But what most people in the West don\u2019t understand is that. The existence of a historic Jewish community inside the Islamic Republic itself. Many people inside or outside Iran are surprised to learn that Judaism, not Zionism. Judaism is officially recognized that synagogues still function and that the Jewish community even has reserved parliamentary representation. Okay. And so we can insist on distinguishing between Judaism and Zionism. So let me ask you, what is Iran\u2019s, , relationship with with with Jews throughout its history?<\/p>\n
I mean, , just for, for, for your information, in recent war, , some of the Iranian citizens have been killed, , there from the Jewish community. Exactly. And, , I mean, that\u2019s representative of, of, of Jewish community in, in, in the Iranian parliament. They, they talked about it. The issue is in Iran, we have all actually minority religion, Christianity, Judaism and other, I mean, Sunni Islam. But the fact is that Iranian Jews have been living in much more security in Iran than Jews in Israel. And that\u2019s something historical. Once again, Zionism was actually a kind of national project which had nothing to do with Judaism. If you look at the history the most, the I mean, most of, , maybe 99% of the most famous, , Jewish rabbis at the time of birth of, of Zionism project, the Herzl, the first Zionist Congress in Basel. They have been opposing to the idea of actually having a land for Israel because normally Jewish people, they believe that they have no right to have a country until the arrival of, of Messiah. And that\u2019s what kind of Messiah. So that\u2019s it. The issue is Jews in Iran have been living in Iran for years for I mean, for for, I mean, for centuries, for thousands of years, while we know Judaism is older than Islam. So even before Islam came to Iran, Jews were in Iran. And we have a lot of history that when I mean, Roman Empire defeated Jews, many of of these people come to Iran, and in order to actually be far from the attack of a Roman Empire.<\/p>\n
But the issue is, even in Palestine, Jewish Christians and Muslims have been living in peace and prosperity for thousands of years without having any problem until the creation of Israel and the Zionist Unhuman Zionist project. So that\u2019s the issue in Iran. We have, I mean, Jewish people. I mean, they have, as you said, synagogues. I mean, the other day I saw a documentary on YouTube that\u2019s in French and Jewish as being a Jewish in Tehran. And that\u2019s very amazing for I mean, French speaking audience. They, they I mean, that the, the that YouTuber come to Iran and visit synagogues and the Jewish community and so on. And they have their right and freedom and they have the community, they they have the schools and everything. So of course, we have to just thank, , Judaism from Zionism and many great Jewish people and Jewish friends of mine, including Norman Finkelstein, Michael Platt, Medea Benjamin, Gareth Porter. Many of these, I mean, Rabbi David Weiss. Many of these Jewish people actually are who are truly Jewish and who are believer in the values of Judaism. They are saying that Israel and Zionism is destroying the whole image of Judaism. And once again, we see the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. After October 7th. Why? Because what Israel is doing in massacring a Palestinian people, it rises a kind of feeling against Jewish people in European countries, which has nothing to do with Iran and Palestine.<\/p>\n
Ahmed, we have enough time for one more question. So I wanted to ask you a a larger philosophical question, because modern Western political identity tends to separate.<\/p>\n
Just just one 22nd Daniel, because I will forget. , we couldn\u2019t cover the the 2026 war, but just to refer to Professor Robert Pape of Chicago University. I\u2019m following him for 12 years. , he is talking about the birth of a country, the birth of a international, of an international power in a period of a month. He\u2019s talking about the center of forth power in the whole world beside us, China and Russia. And we knew that Iran had the possibility to use, , that the the Strait of Hormuz as an arm for 27 years. But we didn\u2019t that we didn\u2019t do that. We didn\u2019t do that. We did that in reaction to American. And we Iran has a lot of cards to play Iranian Revolutionary Guard coming back to two days ago, they warned if US will attack us again, the. The past time we said that war. If you attack us, that war will be a regional war. That time, if you attack us again for the third time, it will be a trans regional war. We will attack your interests across the globe wherever you cannot even believe so. Got to keep that about the war in 2026 and Iran becoming a kind of rising power. And on the other hand, we see a lot of American and European theorists, including Immanuel Wallerstein, Emmanuel Todd talking about La decadence, a decline of U.S. empire. Many books have been written coming back to 30 years ago. At very specific moment. Professor Chomsky, talk about imperial moment. Moment is going to pass. The issue is the US is no more the unipolar actually power in the whole world. The war is changing and Iran is rising. A new chapter in the history of the geopolitical world.<\/p>\n
So let me ask you one last question. So modern Western. A Political identity tends to separate religion and nation and civilization into distinct categories, but Iran often appears to operate differently. In other words, where you have Shiism Persian history and anti-imperial resistance national identity, they seem to merge into a single civilizational consciousness. And so, going back to the Jews, how does the Jewish community fit into that broader framework?<\/p>\n
, you know, I come back to you to almost, , yes. I mean, last year we had a guest from Belgium by the name of Michel Colon. , he\u2019s an investigative journalist, very known in francophone, actually, social media atmosphere. , so, and we went, we visited some of these actually communities, I mean, Jewish and Christian communities in Tehran. , the issue is that\u2019s the power of Iran as a nation, , growing nation for thousands of years. I mean, Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrian, Islam. Um, and we have also atheism. Actually all these. Why they have been kind of mixed with each other. Why? Because the power of Iranian culture and Persian civilization is that big that even when Islam come to Iran, Islam did fit with Iranian culture and civilization. That\u2019s something which is called the historicity of Iranian nation. So if today, for example, I will go to Mexico, and if I will, I would like to do some political and or cultural activity. I cannot, because the historicity of Hamid to Iran and historicity of Daniel belongs to Mexico or Spain, or where she actually he came from. The issue is that History of city and the power of civilization and tradition and culture for thousands of years and centuries made Iran in a kind of a very specific point from which and through which many civilization passed.<\/p>\n
I mean, look at China coming back some ten centuries ago when Chinese actually, , trade men and businessmen wanted to go to Europe, they had no other way but to pass from Iran. The same thing for North Africa to Russia and the Soviet Union at that time. So that\u2019s the specificity of Iranian society, which is very important, in which, as you said, we have the mixture of religions and ethnicities. And in Iran, once again, we have courts, we have Turks, we have, , law, , we have Arabs in Iran, we have the Farsi people. I mean, we have a lot of ethnicity in Iran, ethnic groups, , each one of them, they can be they could be actually a separated country. But it didn\u2019t work. What they made in Iraq by the Kurdistan Independent Province in Iraq, they wanted to make in Iraq, but it didn\u2019t work because Iranians caught or Turk or Farsi or from any other actually, ethnic group for thousands of years have been living with each other. And that\u2019s how they keep the unite. Actually, the unification of that country.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good point, because I think in the Iranian worldview, especially after the rise of of Safavid and later the Islamic revolution, I think all of these categories are often, , overlap into a single historical consciousness. In other words, Iran doesn\u2019t simply see itself as a modern nation state. It sees itself as a civilizational continuity. In other words, Persian, Shiite, historical, imperial, , and resistant all at once. And and so the Jews, they\u2019re not viewed in Iran primarily as a foreign implant, , Persian Jewish community. That\u2019s something important for people to understand. Although the media will tell you otherwise. Pre date, as you said, Islam by centuries and have existed continuously in Persia for about 2500 years. So going back to the Babylonian exile, to the era of Cyrus the Great. And so in the Iranian historical imagination, Jews are therefore a very much part of the ancient, , civilizational, , fabric of, of Persia itself.<\/p>\n
Yes, yes, of course, of course. You know, once again, as I said, I mean, Jews have been, , in Iran before even actual arrival of, of Islam. But the important of what you are saying, and I\u2019m saying is to understand that historical background is to understand that Iran survived for thousands of years and will survive for thousands of years is not as the history. I mean, 300, , actually three century, , , 300 years history of United States in which us have been always in war with other countries. The issue is when you know the definition of a civilization, a definition of civilization is something is a actually a structure, a mixed of norm, and cultures for thousands of years and centuries, which become un destructible. Civilization is something that we cannot destroy. And that\u2019s why Trump is stupid when he\u2019s saying, tonight I\u2019m going to destroy a civilization. Tonight a civilization is going to die. Because something which is right now calling something that Donald J. Trump is calling, by definition, a civilization. Civilization is something that cannot die in a night. That\u2019s her definition. And by default, so and that\u2019s how Iranians once again, from various ethnic groups and religions, as you did mention the variety. I mean, Iranian society is very complicated society. Daniel, to be honest, for me, myself, without traveling to other provinces and without witnessing what I had witnessed, I couldn\u2019t believe that kind of great diversity in Iranian society. So and that\u2019s why Iran could resist for thousands of years and in past five, six, actually 100 years. And we will continue to survive.<\/p>\n
I mean, we\u2019re out of time. But before we go, how can we follow your work? How can we support you? Give us the names of, of, of social media that you\u2019re part of, because I think it\u2019s very important for people to follow and to also understand, again, what Iran is through the eyes of someone who lives there, who understand the culture, understand society. I can share that knowledge with the rest of us.<\/p>\n
, so, , for, for those who would like to understand Iran a little bit more, , I suggest to actually. So, so, , myself, I, , my website is not that kind of update, but I\u2019m sometime doing these interviews with Non-iranians. , but the issue is, I mean, the problem is in Iran, we don\u2019t have a lot of people speaking in foreign languages. And even if even the one who do, they are American, , lovers, you know, and the westernized people. So I, I, I suggest for your audience to follow the work of Mohammad Marandi, professor Marandi on, on YouTube. , so very, , speaking powerful and various shows, including.<\/p>\n
I have to get him on my.<\/p>\n
Show.<\/p>\n
I want to get him on my show. I haven\u2019t been able to.<\/p>\n
I have, I hope you can make it. But the issue is. So my name is Hamid Kashkari. If you Google it, you can find a way to contact me and to see some of your, my actual analysis and interviews on, on YouTube. , but the issue is, , the, the, the problem in Iran once again, is that you have to have more people talking in non-iranian language in English, French, Spanish, , talking with actually the, the audience in the West and the Europe and the United States and Canada. Right now, people are thirsty of information about Iran.<\/p>\n
Absolutely.<\/p>\n
To try to understand Iran, I mean, citizens, the normal, normal citizens, would like to understand how that society could resist for 40 days against the most actually aggressive war of the United States Army, Navy and the contemporary history in post 911 era. So and that\u2019s why we have to do a lot of more about that issue. I, I do whatever I can do, but we have to do much more.<\/p>\n
Thank you so much. My dearest friend, I would love to speak to you again. Take care.<\/p>\n
Thank you Danny. And I wish once I can invite you to Iranian universities talking about the true story behind Bilderberg.<\/p>\n
Count on it. I\u2019d love to be there. Take care. Bye bye.<\/p>\n
Thank you. Bye. Thank you.<\/p>\n
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