Iran-US standoff deepens: Mohammad Marandi breaks down Tehran’s rejected demands

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]So, Iran submitted uh its proposals to end this war and we did hear from President Trump. He said it was totally unacceptable. Those were his words. I'm quoting him directly. Uh he also said uh in uh at a news conference on Monday morning here in Washington DC at the White House that the ceasefire in his view is on life support right now. So, what do you think happens next?

[00:00:27]Well, Trump already launched a war that was illegal and a major act of aggression and he murdered Iranians for 39 days, slaughtered hundreds of little children and uh he failed. And so if he wants to go back to war, we are more than prepared to uh give the United States armed forces uh the response that they received last time round. And I think that under the current circumstances where the global economy is heading towards a major recession and possible depression.

[00:01:14]If war is resumed, if aggression is resumed, then I think we will have a great depression, far worse than what we had in the 1930s. And the world will of course blame Trump, Netanyahu, and Zionism.

[00:01:30]What is your assessment of the current status of the ceasefire?

[00:01:37]>> Well, there is no ceasefire. The United States has imposed a siege on Iranian ports, a starvation siege. We see American senators on TV gloating about how people in Iran don't have food. Of course, that's nonsense, and no one is going hungry in Iran, and Iran has borders with 15 different countries.

[00:01:59]uh but uh that's not a ceasefire and uh basically what the Americans are doing by blockading the Iranian ports is that they are blockading the entire world from oil, LNG, fertilizer, helium and all sorts of petrochemical goods and that will soon start to uh break up the supply chain supply chains for businesses across the world. So what he is doing, what he and Netanyahu are doing is uh wrecking the global economy in their quest to strengthen the genocidal Israeli regime.

[00:02:37]>> What do you make of the way President Trump negotiates? What is a very very sensitive issue, a very complex issue uh and something that as you point out affects the entire world? I mean, if you look at the tone that he uses, the language that he uses, uh, responding to the Iranian proposals with uh a social media posting saying totally unacceptable, referring to senior Iranian diplomats as so-called representatives uh of the country. Um, what does that tell you about how seriously he takes these talks or um is he just out of touch with the reality on the ground? And that's how he behaves and that's how he treats the world and that's how he treats his own people and uh the people around him uh tell him I assume what he wants to hear about his greatness and how he's uh fantastic and how he's always winning. And that I think has led him to become completely detached from reality in many instances.

[00:03:38]But that's it's not just him. Western political elites have been talking nonsense about Iran for decades. It's they like to say it's an unpopular regime. They love to call it a regime.

[00:03:50]Uh whenever you see them repeat the word regime time after time, you can tell how angry and upset they are. They say it's imploding. They say it's falling apart.

[00:04:00]They say it's corrupt. Uh but it doesn't seem to collapse. It doesn't fall apart.

[00:04:05]And when they waged major war against the country, they lost. And that shows that the Islamic Republic of Iran has a high degree of popular legitimacy. It has a very sophisticated uh constitution and uh the institutions are strong and uh today Iran is comparatively speaking stronger than before the war. Iran now controls the straight of hormones. It will no longer allow the Persian Gulf to be a foothold for aggression against the country. And I think that was a catastrophic mistake by Trump and Netanyahu.

[00:04:41]>> Right. As you point out, Iran now controls the straight of Hormuz. Under what conditions will Iran allow that straight to be fully reopened?

[00:04:52]>> The straight has never been closed. That is a myth that we hear in the West. only those countries that participated in war against Iran, countries that helped slaughter little kids and bomb hospitals, uh, a war that was completely unprovoked. Those countries, they're the ones whose ships have, uh, great difficulty passing through the straight of Hormos. That means Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

[00:05:22]Other countries are using the straight.

[00:05:24]Chinese ships, Russian ships, Iraqi ships. Just yesterday we saw Pakistani a ship destined to Pakistan with LNG go even though it came from Qatar but Iran allowed it to go. So the straight is not closed. But as long as the United States imposes a siege on Iranian ports, then its allies in the Persian Gulf, its proxies in the Persian Gulf are not going to use the trade either. Do you envisage a scenario where the straight will be fully reopened to all traffic without there being any agreement on some of the other major issues? Things like uh for instance the lifting of sanctions, the unfreezing of Iranian assets, and most importantly a legally binding internationally backed agreement that Israel and the United States would not attack Iran again.

[00:06:17]No, we will not have normalization until Iran feels completely secure. We may have a ceasefire. We already had a ceasefire where the uh Netanyahu regime tore apart by carpet bombing Lebanon because Lebanon was a part of the ceasefire.

[00:06:35]And then later on when Netanyahu at least briefly accepted the ceasefire, Iran was going to allow some of these ships to go through these ships belonging to these five countries to go through the straight of Hormones. Trump declared that he will preserve the siege on Iranian ports. So there could be a deal where ultimately the United States backs down and there is some uh extra usage of the straight of hormones by these five countries. But Iran is not going to allow the United States to be able to assault it again in future and get away with it. So, uh, without a doubt, Iran is going to use its leverage to make sure that at some point the Americans, uh, uh, recognize that attacking Iran, murdering little Iranian school children is not worth it.

[00:07:23]>> Now, we're also seeing the violence against Lebanon, uh, violence from Israel against Lebanon, uh, escalate.

[00:07:30]Israel continues to bomb Lebanon to use its missiles on Lebanon as well. Now, we understand that there was a clause in the Iranian response uh to the United States which concerned Lebanon and Iran wants that violence to stop. It wants Israel to stop using its bombs against the Lebanese. Uh how bright is that red line for uh Iran?

[00:07:57]I mean, could that be a dealbreaker if Israel doesn't agree to that?

[00:08:02]>> Yes, there will be no deal without the Israelis ending their genocidal assault on Lebanon. The West helped the Israelis exterminate the Palestinians in Gaza.

[00:08:13]The West supports the extermination of Amalch. We've seen that for 2 and 1/2 years. Iran is not going to allow that to continue. So either the West and the United States forces its bloodthirsty allies in Tel Aviv to back off and to yank hard on their shield on on his she on his leash >> uh or there will be no agreement.

[00:08:39]>> And what about the nuclear issue? Um was that talked about in the Iranian response? Uh because there's been so many conflicting statements. there's been misinformation, disinformation about what this issue uh is and how it's going to be resolved. What is the Iranian point of view right now?

[00:08:59]>> The only misinformation comes from Trump and he constantly makes things up. The Iranians have never agreed to uh his demands about uh ending the peaceful nuclear program or handing over Iran's enriched uranium to the United States.

[00:09:16]That is not going to happen. that has never been agreed upon and uh Trump just says that uh in order for internal American public consumption. Uh the priority for Iran is the ceasefire. Then it it is the 10point Iranian plan that Trump agreed to on the last day of the war. That's why Iran accepted the ceasefire. And after that we can start talking about the nuclear program but within the framework of uh Iranian sovereignty. Iran is not going to give up its sovereignty. The era when the Americans can go around threatening countries u is at least in the case of Iran when it comes to Iran that that that that is that era is over and Iran will make sure that the United States is defeated and so is the Zionist regime. Iran is not like other countries where Trump can go around threatening them and imposing sanctions on them and creating fear.

[00:10:14]Iran will hit back and I think they've already done that.

[00:10:18]>> President Trump continues to behave and uh talk about the United States being in control of this entire situation. He often talks about the fact that the entire Iranian military has been defeated, has been vanquished, that he to use his words uh holds all the cards on how this will be resolved. I mean, if we look at what happened last week in, you know, what was described as an exchange of fire took place in the straight of Homus and President Trump uh using his words again, he said, "They trifled with us today. We blew them away." Is that what happened?

[00:10:55]>> No. Again, he's fantasizing. He failed to strike a single Iranian boat, a sing a single Iranian military boat and uh he failed to destroy any of Iran's assets.

[00:11:08]At the end of the day, what happened when he started the aggression in the uh near the straight of Hormos, not a single ship linked to those five countries got through. So obviously he failed. If Iran's government is in disarray and if Iran's armed forces has been defeated and if the country is in chaos, then what does that say about the US armed forces? We still can't get a single ship belonging to those five family dictatorships through the straight of foremost.

[00:11:42]>> What are the prospects for further talks uh mediated by Pakistan between Iran and the United States? These are of course indirect talks, but uh what are those prospects?

[00:11:56]>> That would depend on Trump and the Trump regime. The Iranians are not going to give up on their sovereignty. And the 10-point plan is a very reasonable plan.

[00:12:08]It is reparations. They slaughtered 3,400 Iranians. They slaughtered little children at school. They destroyed hospitals. They destroyed public bridges. They have to pay the price. In addition to that, they have to respect Iran sovereignty and they have to give real assurances that they will not attack Iranian people. Again, this is unacceptable to the United States because the United States is an empire and the empire believes that it has special privileges and everyone else must accept the dictates of the empire.

[00:12:44]Just like the Zionist regime believes itself to be a master people and the rest to be Amalcch and subordinate to them, that's not acceptable to us. It's not acceptable to Iran's allies across the region and it's not going to work.