Marandi on the Iran-US Memorandum: What They're Not Telling You

[00:00:00]Dear friends of Frank Briggs, welcome back today with a special guest, Professor Muhammad Morandi, a friend of us, just came back to us for a special interview about the recent events uh on the memorandum between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America. Professor Mandi, thanks a lot for being here with us.

[00:00:24]>> Thank you very much for inviting me.

[00:00:25]It's a great pleasure.

[00:00:27]>> Great pleasure. So uh professor uh the deal seems has failed. Something is happening and we would really like to understand what's going on. Why um the what actually happened in Geneva should happen and didn't happen. What is going on also by the Iranian perspective who is trying to sabotating this deal and uh who really actually truly controls the US foreign policy.

[00:00:59]Well, I think you answered the question.

[00:01:01]The problem is the Israeli regime. The deal >> needs to be implemented and uh one of the key elements of the deal is to end the genocide in southern Lebanon, the ethnic cleansing and the mass slaughter.

[00:01:19]The Israeli regime is insistent on destroying Lebanon. And they say it openly. They say it in their statements.

[00:01:25]They say it in their social media post posts. Western media won't tell us this because Western media protects uh these genocidal maniacs. But um uh a part of the deal is for the Israeli regime to withdraw from Lebanon and to end the slaughter. And instead, what the regime does is that it intensifies the slaughter. It bombs more towns and more cities and kills more women and children just to wreck the agreement. They did this before, I'm sure you recall, after the 39 days of fighting.

[00:02:02]When the Americans accepted defeat and we had a ceasefire, they uh there was an agreement back then too for Iran to allow more ships to go through the Straight of Hormos because the the Straight of Hormos has Iran never has closed it. It's always been open to Russian, Chinese, Iraqi ships, uh, Oman's ships, Pakistani ships, countries that did not participate in the war, but it was closed to Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain because they helped the United States wage war and kill Iranians. So in the ceasefire, Iran was supposed to allow ships from th from those countries to pass through the straight of Hormos and then the Israeli regime was supposed to leave Lebanon and end the slaughter.

[00:02:56]But what happened was Netanyahu immediately carpet bombed different cities in Lebanon. In 10 minutes, he murdered hundreds of people, ordinary people in different cities just to wreck the ceasefire. This is how monstrous the Israeli regime is. And of course, Western media hides it from re from the public. They say these are Hezbollah targets. Many of the places they bombed were in areas that had nothing to do with the resistance. Even the people in those neighborhoods were uh pro- western or pro-Saudi or proati and pro-Israeli.

[00:03:33]But uh they didn't care. They bombed everyone. So they they wanted to wreck the ceasefire back then about 2 months ago which they succeeded and this led to the growing global economic crisis and now they're doing the same thing again.

[00:03:48]They're bombing towns and villages trying to kill as many people as possible in order to wreck this agreement because in at the very beginning of the agreement it says that the war in Lebanon must end and Lebanese sovereignty must be restored and so the Israelis have to withdraw and that's that's the Israelis are doing the Israeli regime is doing the exact opposite in order to wreck the entire agreement. The Israelis don't care if the uh global economy collapses. They don't care if the American economy collapses. They don't care if the Indian economy collapses. They only care about their Zionist project.

[00:04:27]>> Zionist project.

[00:04:30]>> Thank you. Uh Professor Muhammad. Well, um we were talking about the Islamabad uh memorandum and saw the role of Pakistan was a key role and um everybody were discussing about this. We had also a field marshal Azimir as a key intermediary backed by Beijing. But now that the deal has failed, is still possible to talk about a key role about Pakistan's sh diplomacy or not? What's the future of uh the mediation of Islamabad in this possible future deal with Iran and the US?

[00:05:12]>> The deal hasn't failed completely, but it is it is closer to failure. uh even though it's only been a couple of days a couple of days >> uh the Pakistanis have obviously played a positive role but at the end of the day these are written messages that are sent back and forth between Iran and the United States and it was the United States that was uh impeding an agreement. Ultimately, the Americans had to accept and anyone who reads the agreement recognizes that uh the Americans had to concede defeat. And it's obvious why because they lost in the war. At the beginning of the war, Trump demanded unconditional surrender and for Iran to lay down its arms. And by the end of the war, he had to accept Iran's 10-point peace plan as the framework for negotiations. And then he went and imposed a siege warfare which was a double-edged sword. He wrecked the glo Trump wrecked the global economy in the hope that he'll destroy the Iranian economy and Iran outlasted him. So he had to accept uh negotiations and of course the negotiation text the text that was negotiated is reflected uh is reflective of the defeats on the battlefield and in siege warfare. But the problem is implementation. Uh the United States resists implementation and so does the Zionist regime. And if the deal is not implemented, then uh trade from these five countries that help the United States kill Iranians, the Saudis, the Kataris, the Amiratis, Kuwait, Bahrain, they will not be able to use the straight of hormones.

[00:06:56]Well, um let me say, do you think that maybe all of these was just a kind of trap uh to uh figure out who were the falcons be behind the the lines to discover these falcons both by um the United States and the Iranian side as they have signed a memorandum, not an accord, not a treatise. And some analysts were discussing about this why such a kind of a legal agreement which is so weak when they could maybe uh look for something stronger. But what we have seen in the last 48 hours is that actually since the deal was trying to fail you know because of the attacks by the Israeli regime and on the other side we see that the US are still waiting not answering not showing any kind of official position. Do you think this could really be in the mind of the both sides signing the treaties?

[00:08:01]Well, thisou, this memorandum of understanding is um can only be implemented if the United States is uh is honest and the United States has to lift the siege that it which it has done. It has to lift the sanctions on Iran's energy sector uh which we haven't seen yet and it has to free Iranian assets which uh we haven't seen yet.

[00:08:32]In addition to that, it has to end the war the genocide in in in Lebanon. Now, the West traditionally supports the Israeli regime no matter what it does.

[00:08:42]if they kill hundreds of thousands of people, the Europeans, the Americans, the the the elites, they fully support them. Uh even though ordinary people hate the regime. And in in Italy, for example, we saw huge protests against the genocide, but we're I'm talking about the elites, the the the people in power. Uh so now this is where things stand.

[00:09:07]Traditionally, the West supports the Israelis when they bomb Beirut, when they bomb cities in southern Lebanon, when they bomb people's homes. Uh, actually yesterday, a friend of mine, his father-in-law was killed. Uh, his house was bombed and he he was left under the rubble and the Israeli regime wouldn't allow people to get near to the building to save him. So this old man was died. But uh this is just one example. But the problem is that if they allow the Israelis to violate the deal, then the global economy will move closer and closer to crisis. So Trump has to make a choice. Does he want and does he want to allow uh the global economy to collapse or should he stop uh the the Zionist from killing women and children?

[00:10:04]>> This is this is the real issue here. The the issue is whether the United States >> uh is prepared to expel or force the Israeli regime to leave uh Lebanon and to stop killing people. If it has the will to do that, then the agreement can move forward. If it doesn't have that will, then the agreement will collapse.

[00:10:31]What everybody's expecting to see. Um, so let's move the subject to another topic. Um, I have a very practical question by an Iranian businessman on our team. So in case of agreements we're talking about um billions in in frozen in found um but were actually released 24 billions plus more billions to invest in the rebuilding. How can Iran guarantee that there won't be American influence in the management of his money? I mean um is there a specific legal uh financial framework to protect these assets from the western interference or not?

[00:11:16]>> Well, the the release funding uh which is $12 billion and then over the next couple of months another $12 million of Iranian money that was stolen. uh that money, the 2425 billion that will that will be released according to the plan that is Iranian money. So the Iranians will use it in whatever way they want.

[00:11:42]That the other money that you're speaking about the the investment money that of course has to go through Iranian laws and uh it has to go through the government just like in any other country. Foreign investment has its own regulations and I basically what this is doing it is is that it's breaking the sanctions regime because the Americans have imposed many laws to prevent countries from doing business with Iran from investing in Iran. So basically this this this G this deal is uh breaking that uh sanctions regime the this this element that's very interesting because it's one of the points I think we would like to to see and of course we're happy that Iran will have back its own money. Um and exactly about this about this uh Iranian economic leverage. Um we know that the United States are so sensitive to the economic pressure especially about the energy shortage. So how does Iran plan to use uh its leverage such for example restricting again the traffic of in the straight of uh to make this kind of pressure more painful for Washington because we know they cannot afford it for so long time. Well, first we have to always keep in mind that Iran didn't start this war and the trade through the trade of hormones was always normal and the United States waged war and those countries that helped the United States, the Iranians decided to stop their ships.

[00:13:26]Not all ships, as I said earlier, just those who helped kill Iranians.

[00:13:32]So right now we have an agreement and uh ships from these countries can move back and forth like they used to. But if the United States violates the agreement then its allies who helped it, they will still have restrictions.

[00:13:48]So the smart thing for the United States to do would be to implement the deal. Uh otherwise those countries that are guilty of war crimes against Iran, their ships will continue to pace restrictions. Now those restrictions could be you know absolute they could be they could all be restricted or they could be only small numbers of them can can use this trade. That would depend on the circumstances. But what Iran wants is normalization and the the only way for normalization is for the Americans to end the genocide. And they can end the genocide because they're the ones providing the bombs and the weapons and the money. I mean, Israel without the United States would fall apart. It's a weak country.

[00:14:33]It's a small country. All of its capabilities are simply because the Americans pour them into the country.

[00:14:38]The Europeans as well, the Germans, the British, but the Americans do far more than anyone else. So, if the Americans want the normalization of uh business and trade and the flow of energy, >> it's very easy. All they have to do is stop the genocide. Otherwise, if they don't, that means the deal falls and fails. And if it fails, then Iran will uh treat those five countries differently.

[00:15:13]approaching now by um the global south and bricks perspective. Um the US once again showed to the world that they cannot afford any kind of international agreement. They are not trustful. So do you think that this event will impact on the beliefs and on the trust of the emergent economies and countries in the relations financial relations with um the western diplomacy and the US uh le financial system or not?

[00:15:50]Robert Kagan who is basically the godfather of the neocons >> and a very close person to uh Dick Cheney who was uh George Bush's vice president.

[00:16:05]He said that this was the biggest defeat that the United States ever experienced.

[00:16:10]And that means that is this is much bigger than any other war even Vietnam.

[00:16:16]And this I think is a is a clear indication of uh the fact that the world uh will be severely impacted by the US defeat and uh the the empire of course was already on the decline. But this I think was a a very very special um moment in history and I think the the process of change across the world and the emergence of multipolar order is going to quicken because for the first time the United States has utterly failed. It's it's not that it just that Iran survived. It's much more than that. Iran till the very last minute was firing missiles and drones at US bases. destroyed almost all of them, the rest badly damaged, targeting the Israeli regime day and night, retaliating when Iran's uh critical infrastructure was struck by destroying critical infrastructure the infrastructures of the Israeli regime and those countries that were assisting the US in the war. So this was a war where the Americans failed completely and uh and of course Iran emerged much stronger and Iran became a hero or the hero for the global majority.

[00:17:33]So I do think that as a result there's going to be enormous changes and that um it will impact the control over the United States uh the control of the United States over the global economy over events across the world its ability to impose its will on other peoples and other uh nations.

[00:17:55]uh this is going this will act as a a catalyst and it will fast forward the changes that we are witnessing.

[00:18:09]>> Um let me professor end with a question about the political role of a sport. Um we are in the period of the World Cup and a few days ago the Iranian national team played against Nigeria and the players come came onto the field carrying the children's backpack during the national anthem in uh remembrance of the Martis of the school of Min >> uh New Zealand. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Um tomorrow it's going to play the second um match against Belgium if I remember well and uh we know that with the clear US ostriches toward the Iranian athletes. Uh let me ask you with with a touch of irony. What would you give to see Trump personally hand the world cup give it to the Iranian national team on the American soil?

[00:19:06]Well, the Iranian national team is a is a good team. I find it highly unlikely that uh we will reach that point. I would rather not the Iranian team have to receive the full uh the uh the cup from the from Trump. I'd rather Trump never see be seen beside any Iranian.

[00:19:28]What I'd like to see is the World Cup to pass off peacefully and for people to enjoy it. The United States is treating the Iranian team very poorly and just as it treats the Iranian people, the Lebanese people, the Palestinian people in a very disgraceful way, it's even in football, it cannot behave normally. But um I I hope that the the games are an opportunity for for people to uh to forget some of their pains and some of the suffering that takes place in the world. But at the same time, I also hope that people don't forget Gaza, they don't forget Lebanon, and they don't forget the crimes being committed on a daily basis by the Israeli regime. Um and uh everyone remains active in putting pressure on the United States, on the Europeans for supporting ethnosupreism, genocide and uh ethnic cleansing.

[00:20:33]>> Professor Manandi, thank you so much for your time and your insights as always and uh we really hope to see you very soon. Thank you so much to all our audience. Stay tuned, stay informed and see you the next interview. Goodbye.