'We are also a superpower': Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei to Reporter

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Ryan, I wanted to ask you about the way that the Trump administration is navigating the question of the War Powers Act. You know, I mean, it's it it presumes that the Democrats would actually do anything about it, but you know, this morning at the uh Pentagon press briefing where, by the way, it's like there's there is no real independent press there right now. the reporters got up and and engaged in a long soliloquy about how amazing and awesome uh this military operation has been before then asking a question that pissed off Pete Hegth precisely because he then asked something that wasn't just heaping praise on him. I mean it's really like would make the baronss of the Soviet media empire blush with him, you know, secondhand embarrassment for these guys. But um he did say essentially that they think that it's now reset um and that and so they're they're doing two things. They're saying this humanitarian mission that we're on, Project Freedom in the Straight of Hormuz, um this is uh a humanitarian thing and anything that happens bad there is because we have to defend ourselves against the Iranian fast boats or missiles or whatever. And then on the other hand, they're saying that if they decide to resume the war that the clock has reset. What what what's your sense of things in Washington right now on this question?

[00:01:13]>> Yeah, I mean the the reasoning from them is just totally preposterous. there's this idea that has taken hold that there's a this after 60 days, you know, that the the executive has to explain what they're doing and then get, you know, some type of congressional approval. Uh, you know, that's that's disputed based on whether or not what the definition of quote unquote entered into hostilities are. Yeah. What they're saying is that okay well we ended that last war and so now we're doing a new war so that the 60 days goes back to zero but of course entered into hostilities American service members are entered into hostilities at this moment you know they are they're within range of uh you know adversarial fire um and so scholars for a long time have said no if you it just the very act of sending American service members from the con from the United States out somewhere else aggressively even if they don't fire first like that counts. Now Trump is also now saying uh that the entire thing is unconstitutional because you know he's the he's the commander-in-chief and you know get out of his way. Ultimately, this is a lot of, you know, this is kind of procedural and paperwork, but it is it is kind of interesting that Trump has always cared about this. Even in the first Trump administration where there were there were there were war powers resolutions that were pushed um by I know Rohan in the House, Bernie Sanders and believe um Ran Paul in the in the Senate around the the Sa the US Saudi Yemen war. And he always cared. It was very interesting like because you can imagine him saying, "Well, this is unconstitutional and I don't really respect Congress period as a co-equal branch." Uh yet for some reason like he recognizes the political potency of Congress going on record and voting against him entering into into hostilities. So th that's I think that explains why he's now doing this kind of semantic silliness around well this is a new war.

[00:03:26]>> Well I I I think also I mean re really the the whole game right now is is this question of whether or not Trump is going to resume you know active military attacks against Iran. It seems that the Israelis certainly um appear to want that although as you've reported and and we all know you know there are questions about their ability to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles at at the same capacity they've been been able to >> historically but it does I mean the thing that Abbasani was saying at the end is a fair point about the different factions within the United States and you know it's not often written about that way you know if the United States was reported on the way that we report about other societies where everything is always viewed as sort of a banana Republic. Um the it it all is playing out there and Trump is clearly having to try to reconcile multiple special interests, not the least of which is Israel's agenda. And also, you know, he's hearing uh you know, he's hearing certain things from Jared Kushner. He has Steve Whit who's a complete imbecile, you know, that that doesn't understand the technical issues. He has JD Vance who uh whether whatever you think about JD Vance and if you think that he is his people are kind of fanning this idea that he has some dissident view within the administration because of his future political ambitions. The the core fact is he represents the United States government.

[00:04:47]He's the vice president elected vice president of the United States government. But it is true that you have different factions within Trump land um and and they're in disarray. And what we're seeing is Trump trying to figure out how he's going to get out of this thing.

[00:05:03]Um, he wants to be able to achieve victory. It seems pretty clear the Iranians don't want to give him uh the kind of victory that he wants. I mean, one Iranian official said to me the other day that in the JD Vance talks, what they were saying would kind of define victory for Trump is not just the removal of the highlyenriched uranium, but also um that Iran for a lengthy fixed period will do no enrichment whatsoever. Um and the Iranians have pushed back very strongly against that.

[00:05:33]at their bottom line, the most minimal, they say we have a right to use it for medical research and other peaceful purposes. Um, but if Trump can't get that kind of quote unquote victory from the Iranians, which I highly doubt they're going to give him at the beginning of a discussion uh that doesn't include lifting the blockade, ending the war, and then going into lengthy technical negotiations, then what does Trump do? Well, they Iranians think he may well authorize a military operation in the straight of Hormuz and that part of what he might be trying to do here is lay the groundwork for that.

[00:06:10]They also told me they believe that it's likely that Iran will be hit with another round of assassination strikes waged by Israel and the United States.

[00:06:19]And from the Iranian perspective, yes, it's about lifting sanctions. Yes, it's about uh repatriating tens of billions of dollars in frozen assets, but it's also about u long-term insurance that the US and Israel don't think that they can just periodically bomb Iran. And that's a very hard thing to get a guarantee on. They can't rely rely on the United Nations. They can't rely on Russia and China. to an extent maybe they can you know in terms of arguing technicalities but what I'm hearing from Iranians is we understand all of that and our guarantee is our refusal to concede >> is our uh display in front of the world that we have a very powerful weapon in the straight of Hormuz and any alternatives that people are talking about building whether it's the Amiradis or others um those are long-term wishes and the impact is going to be multi-year if you don't resolve this with Yeah. And as Abbas Aslani said, you know, from his perspective, the Iranians have at minimum several months that they can, you know, that that they can play this kind of game of chicken. Whereas Trump is running into real time and physical reality questions, physical reality questions on on the economic front in in particular because he's driving, you know, the you know, the fertilizer crisis, the energy crisis and so on. Um, but the physical reality on American military capacity and and ammunition, like the idea of a full-on assault that goes through the straight of Hormuz would would eat up so much ammunition just from a def, you know, from an offensive capacity as they tried to obliterate Iran's ability to, you know, fire at them as they're going through, but then also in a a defensive capacity as they're as they're trying to make sure that, you know, ships aren't sunk by by drones and ballistic missiles fired at the already, you know, vastly diminished from what they had in their stock piles, you know, two months ago. Uh that would that would disarm the United States to an extent uh that it really hasn't been since kind of the end of World War II practically. Uh and he's running up against the calendar deadline of his meeting with Xi Jinping, which is just what less than two weeks away at this point.

[00:08:45]>> Well, and Abasarachi is reportedly imminently going to be going to Beijing to meet with the the Chinese leadership.

[00:08:53]Um, also New York Times had an interesting piece and I had heard something about this as well uh from sources that China recently transferred a bunch of dualuse materials into Iran.

[00:09:04]And the Chinese are not denying it.

[00:09:06]They're just saying we follow all the rules about dual use. And you know, China has its own bilateral relationship, but you know, I think the Iranians, you know, are are definitely um strengthening and and deepening their relationships with Russia, with China, with other countries in the in the region. Um, you know, there was a really interesting, you know, moment that kind of went viral and made turned into a meme of sorts where Esmile Bagay, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, uh, was asked at a press briefing yesterday, the United States is a superpower, and why isn't Iran capitulating to these demands? And he said, we're also a superpower.

[00:09:45]And you know, so it's I I I think that what the American public is being treated to right now is that this was portrayed as a slam dunk in many ways and that the cartoonized version of Iran, the idea that it just exists around a cult of personality was false from the beginning and those who actually knew were not the featured voices in the narrative. Um, and that's easy when you have Trump because he's so cartoonishly buffoonishly villainous in some ways and he lies repeatedly. But that's been a pattern that extends through both Democratic and Republican administrations and it's a broader media tone. Whatever else is true, Iran has shown that it has very serious institutions that can withstand even the wiping out of the top leadership of almost every aspect of that system and keep going and fight the United States to what is effectively a standstill.

[00:10:39]>> Um, this is a remarkable moment in history that we're living in. And those who refuse to kind of learn the lessons from this are doomed to continue to jeopardize American standing in the world and American security ultimately at the end of the day. Um not to mention just that we're a country that is appears to much of the world to be a completely rogue systematic committer of war crimes.

[00:11:03]>> Yeah. And I just want to underline one other point that he made too. Um, which is that if if if they really felt like they were in a desperate situation where they were not currently winning the standoff with the United States and couldn't wait them out that they would have moved on the street of Bob Almund by now. Um, that was that was an interesting point like that. And so I think that people should keep that in mind.

[00:11:26]>> Yeah.

[00:11:26]>> And kind of watch that straight, you know, as they as people say, watch this space. uh you know if you know if if you see them moving there it might paradoxically be a signal that they feel like the standoff is not no longer going in their direction. But the the longer that they are satisfied to to use that term with the status quo um then the longer they they they hold that card back suggests that Trump's claim that he's the one holding all the cards uh isn't isn't quite honest. Also, by the way, he he posted himself with a full deck of Uno cards, >> you know, >> wild cards, too. Yeah.

[00:12:05]>> Yeah. If you have if you have that many Uno cards, you're losing. Like, does he I don't think he's played Uno for a while, but >> yeah, >> you're supposed to not have any cards in Uno to win. Um, so he >> and you saw that the spokesman, the spokesman for Iran's conventional uh joint military forces, they then posted a picture of him showing four cards instead of five and they were all like reverse or block uh symbols and you know saying we actually understand the rules of the game. Anyway, um Ryan, thanks uh thanks so much. And I also want to thank um everybody who's a supporter of Drop Site News. you know, our the main way that we are able to keep doing this journalism uh is because of our readers, our uh listeners, our viewers, and we don't put anything behind a payw wall, and that's a a principle. It's it's something that we are committed to. Um, but we do uh appreciate the generosity of those of you that support this journalism um who are willing to become paid subscribers or to make a uh 501c3 taxdeductible donation to support the journalism at uh Dropsite News. We've got a lot of really great reports right now at our website at dropsightnews.com.

[00:13:18]We're one of the few news organizations that actually has sources um in Iran and we try to really make sure that we're providing our readers with a comprehensive nuanced uh campaign of reporting so that uh people can make informed decisions about how they view uh this USIsraeli war against Iran. On behalf of our whole team at dropsightnews.com, I want to thank you so much for your support. Thank you for joining us. Till next time, I'm Jeremy Scill with Ryan Grim.