Alex Krainer: China DESTROYS Trump’s Blockade – Iran Now RULES Hormuz Strait

Added: 2026-05-04

[00:00:06]Hi everybody. Today is Thursday, April 16th, 2020 5 2026. I I'm just having a little bit of business.

[00:00:17]Alex Let's get started with our dear friend Alex Graner. Brother is here with us.

[00:00:23]Alex, welcome back.

[00:00:25]Thank you for the invite Nima. Always good to join you and greetings to everyone from Croatia.

[00:00:33]Alex, let's start with what's going on physically, what's going on practically.

[00:00:40]Did George H.W. Bush is heading to the region?

[00:00:44]And they're not going through the Red Sea. They're making, you know, they're they have chosen another route to get there. And here is the report on Fox News.

[00:00:57]The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier strike group, which left Norfolk, Virginia on March 31st, had to go around the southern tip of Africa following threats from the Houthis to strike ships in the Red Sea and close the Bab al-Mandab Strait in solidarity with Iran. Remember from March to May last year, the Pentagon carried out Operation Rough Rider, a 6-week operation to degrade the Houthis ability to threaten ships in the Red Sea. It cost over a billion dollars and led to concerns about depleting US munition stockpiles. $200 million were dollars were spent on missiles in the first 3 weeks of that operation. The US lost seven MQ-9 Reaper drones worth $30 million apiece and two FA-18 jets worth $50 million each. CENTCOM hit more than 1,000 targets using these weapons and yet the Houthis survived and are now threatening to disrupt global shipping by closing the Bab al-Mandab Strait, very similar to what they're doing in the Strait of Hormuz.

[00:01:59]Yeah.

[00:02:01]What is Alex? Because we've learned The other thing would be 10,000 more soldiers to the region.

[00:02:10]And there are some rumors that the United States Central Command is thinking of a ground invasion. What we've learned from the Iranian side just yesterday, they said welcome. If you want me to you you want to start with the ground invasion of Iran, nobody would survive that. You're not going to survive that if you do that.

[00:02:30]And we have the blockade happening.

[00:02:33]Your understanding of the current situation.

[00:02:38]I struggle to explain it to myself Nima because it barely makes any sense at all.

[00:02:45]I think that by now everybody understands that Iran is a is an enormous country.

[00:02:50]It has 92 million plus population.

[00:02:54]It has a million plus man army.

[00:02:58]It has a very long coastline which is which is difficult mountainous terrain.

[00:03:07]Uh What are you going to do with another air air strike carrier that you couldn't do with the first two?

[00:03:16]And one of them is out of commission.

[00:03:18]The the Gerald Ford is out of commission.

[00:03:23]Uh ground invasion?

[00:03:25]Um what are you going to do with 50 or 60,000 troops?

[00:03:30]What what you know, like it would be like sending 50 or 60,000 troops to to occupy Western Europe.

[00:03:38]It's it's just silly and it seems to me that the only reason for all these moves is because Donald Trump cannot concede defeat. He cannot lay it to rest and say, "We messed up. Let's let's not do this anymore."

[00:03:56]I think you and I have discussed a number of times, let's say previous to the 28th February when when Trump attacked Iran, that Iran actually should be Trump's logical partner in this region because it's a very rich country. It's a fifth richest country in terms of natural resource wealth.

[00:04:19]Uh They have an estimated 30 35 trillion dollars worth of natural resource wealth.

[00:04:26]If you wanted to have a meaningful footprint in this region, you should partner with Iran, not with Israel, which is nothing but a liability for the United States.

[00:04:39]Uh This is why uh purely on the basis of let's say rational assessment of the situation, uh I thought they would never do this. But not not only has Trump triggered this attack, he's [snorts] he remains committed to it.

[00:04:58]And I can't find a better explanation than he can't he can't let it go because he can't admit defeat.

[00:05:08]Uh militarily, Iran definitely, clearly, obviously has uh escalatory dominance in this region.

[00:05:17]Everybody knew this. Trump was advised accordingly. We now know that Benjamin Netanyahu has begged every administrations from George W. Bush on, uh maybe even Clinton, to attack Iran for him.

[00:05:34]Nobody has done it because everybody came to the same conclusion.

[00:05:38]It's too risky. It can be done.

[00:05:42]The chances of success are too too low, too little.

[00:05:46]We're not going to attack Iran.

[00:05:49]Trump did. And now he just can't withdraw because there is no face-saving exit.

[00:05:58]And Iranians are not giving giving him one.

[00:06:01]And so uh he's bringing more. He's escalating more. The the the the the rhetoric is escalating. Trump Trump isn't You know, like now you keep hearing about how uh oh, we won. We won.

[00:06:14]Trump will repeat the same uh set of narrative points in the same conference with the press several times over, practically repeating exactly You know, like like he learned by heart. Oh, we sank their ships. Oh, we took care of their anti-aircraft. They don't have an air force. We killed all the leaders.

[00:06:38]As if that's somehow acceptable.

[00:06:42]And it seems to me that it's it's it's it's turned into a psychotic situation.

[00:06:47]You know, uh perpetuating the risk of war just because you can't admit defeat.

[00:06:55]And you're going to keep insisting until your adversaries give you something that you can qualify as a victory.

[00:07:03]And then maybe you're going to say like, "Ha, look, we crashed them."

[00:07:06]Uh we win. Uh now, look, here's here's our here's our token of victory, our our our uh trophy.

[00:07:17]And now we can close. Without that, it seems that they're they're just going to continue to escalate, but I don't I don't see how they can. I don't >> [cough and clears throat] >> You can do anything with two aircraft carriers. I mean, you can blow up things. You can't take control of the country. You can't take control of the Strait of Hormuz. You can't open it against Iranian opposition.

[00:07:39]Uh you can't control the uh the the the the coastlines, the islands, the the the oil terminal. You can't prevent Iran from striking at at your targets in the region.

[00:07:53]I I just simply don't understand and I think that the rational thing to do would be to simply say, "Okay, we lost. We withdraw. That's that's the end of this story."

[00:08:05]But we're we're clearly not dealing with rational actors here.

[00:08:11]And so I I I don't know where this goes, but for the United States, it's going nowhere good. For Iran, in the short term, it may be painful, but in the longer term, Iran might uh reach a completely different level of national security by eradicating their enemies' presence in the region.

[00:08:31]So, it's it's for Iran that that, you know, that that slogan that they invented some weeks ago, short-term pain for the long-term gain, that might work in Iran's favor, but not in the United States' favor. This is for the United States, this is short-term pain for even more long-term pain.

[00:08:53]Yeah.

[00:08:56]Alex, when it comes to the blockade of, you know, the Strait of Hormuz, it's blockade is happening in the Arabian Sea.

[00:09:06]And what Does it make sense for you, do you know, to you blockade the blockade?

[00:09:14]What is that?

[00:09:16]>> [laughter] >> It doesn't make any sense at all, you know. Um The the Gulf of Oman is is is about twice as wide as the Gate of Hormuz as the Strait of Hormuz.

[00:09:27]So, it's a large sea large area of the sea.

[00:09:31]Uh >> [clears throat] >> In normal times, uh the Strait of Hormuz would be traversed by between 120 150 ships per day, every day.

[00:09:46]Policing this traffic would be an extremely uh difficult thing to do.

[00:09:54]Because you would have to What would you do? You would have to board every ship to inspect to look at their paperwork to see whose whose cargo is it it is, who paid for it, who shipped it.

[00:10:08]Uh how are you going to do that times 100 per day?

[00:10:14]And maybe today it's less, but still maybe it's it's 30, 40, 50 vessels, I don't know.

[00:10:20]>> [clears throat] >> With time with time the traffic is probably going to be picking up.

[00:10:25]Uh this is impossible and then you know, it's it's in practical terms it's hard work.

[00:10:33]You know, you may you may have to accost the vessels with the with the other ships or more likely with uh with helicopters, but you know, you still have to fly out those helicopters land on the ship, bring the troops in uh do the you know, it's it's it's just like heavy duty policing work that nobody believes in, right? So I I I imagine that the US troops would not be super zealous about doing this work.

[00:11:07]You know, they would probably slack off in a big time.

[00:11:12]So it would be an it it it it it it it it it it it will inevitably be an extremely porous blockade.

[00:11:20]It's just not going to work. It may work uh as a as a as a narrative device. You know, like you come out and you tell your public at home well, they blocked the Strait of Hormuz.

[00:11:35]Now watch us, we're going to block it, not them. We block it, we control the situation, you know. It's like you know, like when when when your when your girlfriend breaks up with you and then you say like, no, I break up with you first, you know, because your pride just can't take it that you know, she dumped you, so you're like, no, no, no, I'm dumping you.

[00:11:56]It that's how it strikes me. Like it's you it's like junior high school.

[00:12:00]And it's you know, um it's consistent with with Trump's uh social media post of late. They they really increasingly read like uh like a mean high school uh brat who is who is making all those communications. I don't know how they came I don't know how they came to the decision to block the the Sea of Oman.

[00:12:30]But they well in advance of the attack on Iran on 28 February they knew that almost certainly Iran's countermeasure would be closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

[00:12:45]So how is it that for 40 days this idea never occurred occurred to anybody?

[00:12:50]Or how is it that in their in their studies and assessments of the possible confrontation with Iran when they came to the conclusion Iran's going to close the Strait of Hormuz they didn't say they didn't write somewhere, oh, the brilliant countermeasure is we're going to close the Sea of Oman. There, that's how we're going to deal with that.

[00:13:10]So it it seems to me that it's um probably a decision that was reached um in a certain desperation among a very na- narrow um group of policy makers, you know, maybe Trump and Kushner and and Witkoff and and and Pete Hegseth, none of whom apparently uh have any particular depth uh to assess strategic moves and what their what their broader consequences will be or even operational capabilities because this is operationally a very heavy policing homework that you now imposed on your troops who are already sick and tired, exhausted, they don't particularly know why they're there what the point of all this war. I think that most of them think they're fighting a war for Israel. Israel is not the United States. None of them swore allegiance to Israel and I think this is why we're seeing mishaps with American ships happen as often as they do because you know, rather than mutinying American troops just sabotage their own equipment and say like yeah, you know, we'd love to go and fight this war for you, we just can't because our ship broke down, so we're going to have to be hold to some shipyard for repairs. And where are you going to repair it?

[00:14:32]I I I don't know if uh their base in Diego Garcia has the facilities necessary to repair their their ships. Maybe they have to take them back to the United States. I don't I don't know exactly, but it all so it all feels like like sheer desperation.

[00:14:54]And the only reason why they're doing all this that I can tell is because they just can't man up and say, we cocked up.

[00:15:02]We're out of here. This was a big mistake and we are going to cut our losses and and leave.

[00:15:11]Alex, one of the very important figures in Washington that we usually talk less about him is Stephen Miller. He's so powerful in Washington and he here is what he said on Fox News.

[00:15:27]embargo and every other option is on the table as President Trump seeks that final safe, secure outcome for the people of the world.

[00:15:38]All right, Stephen Miller. Yeah. You when you talk about if he when he when the final safe and secure you know, sort of solution.

[00:15:50]But what is missing Alex in my opinion in Washington that they don't know >> [clears throat] >> who's Iran who's Iran, who's is you remember every time they're talking and Marco Rubio every time he talks about Iran he's in these radical Islamists, you know, ideologists and all of this sort of nonsense.

[00:16:14]I think Iran has proven so far they're more pragmatic than you know, being radical and base and they know what they're doing.

[00:16:23]They didn't, you know, even with the case of civilians killing civilians, they didn't they didn't, you know, respond the same way.

[00:16:31]They knew what would be the main targets on their part and what would make sense for them.

[00:16:38]And Iran I think Alex, looking at the history because every time they're talking and these are terrorists you know, governments in Iran.

[00:16:48]But as our friend Larry Johnson has mentioned in multiple time on this podcast, you looking at the numbers it's not even there.

[00:16:58]You know, the policy in Israel is assassination. Whenever they have a spy in Iran, they want to find these high rank people to kill them, to assassinate them.

[00:17:08]But on the other hand, you see Iranians are totally the opposite. They want to get the information out from Israel.

[00:17:16]I think this is this shows hugely what is happening in the mind of the Iranian leadership which is missing in the calculation of the of Washington.

[00:17:26]I think we the first step would be to understand your enemy. You have to understand your enemy, what your enemy is and how what is the process of, you know, assessment on their part, the way they they feel, the way they respond. That's missing in Washington. Nobody's talking about that.

[00:17:48]Uh well, Nima, what you say would make sense except that this administration seems to be at least in at least seem to be driven by hubris. They think that they are so superior to everybody else that they don't need to learn anything about anybody. They can just make their way by force. You can see how they responded to to to the Pope in this in this recent spat.

[00:18:10]They're like, we are the United States of America, we do what we want and you better make sure that you're on us our side if you know what's good for you.

[00:18:17]You know, that's their you know, like that that's their mindset.

[00:18:21]We are so big, so powerful, so invincible we don't need to like waste time learning about these Iranians or whoever, we can just crush them. You know, we can just crush them and that's the end of that.

[00:18:35]And you know, maybe even learning about the Iranians would would you know, maybe they would think that that's like demeaning themselves, you know.

[00:18:44]Why should they? But I'm glad Nima, I'm glad you brought up Stephen Miller because Stephen Miller is one of these um shadow entities that you don't hear so much from or about.

[00:18:57]But I would, you know, I would expect that he played a very important role in uh leading the United States to this war because you know, back in 2019 when uh the British ambassador Sir Kim Darroch was uh mounted a pressure campaign against Trump to try to persuade him to go to war against Iran during his first term.

[00:19:29]Um he Trump declined and then uh the ambassador was very upset that, you know Trump didn't uh start a bombing campaign against Iran.

[00:19:43]But then in the in the correspondence that emerged uh he was saying that well, you know, uh we could still pressure Trump into attacking Iran. We could we could achieve it.

[00:19:56]And uh he said that this could be done by surrounding Trump, uh flooding the zone around Trump with uh so-called Trump whisperers.

[00:20:07]And then we got uh some names of these Trump whisperers that would push Trump to uh start a war against Iran. And one of them was Stephen Miller.

[00:20:20]And uh so he is he probably still has that role. He's probably still connected to the to the networks that wanted this outcome.

[00:20:33]And he's part of the problem for the for the US administration and for the American people because American people never wanted this. American people voted for Trump because he actually explicitly promised that there will be no more wars, that the United States would not attack Iran.

[00:20:48]And somehow all of this was thrown overboard on 28th February this year.

[00:20:54]And I suspect that Stephen Miller played a very very important role in this. And so statements like he gave recently and he said more than what you just played. I heard that I heard his statements. It's all more rah rah rah, you know, we are we're the winners.

[00:21:09]We'll we're going to do what we want.

[00:21:12]Uh I think that he's also uh uh defending his own legacy, defending his own position in in government because this is a a massive screw-up, colossal blunder that he is responsible for and he certainly knows knows it.

[00:21:30]And I I think that many people in the administration also appreciate that.

[00:21:35]Yeah.

[00:21:38]Alex, looking at Russia and China today, you heard from China, for example, Donald Trump said, "By the way, is this blockade is China is happy with that because we're helping to open up the Strait of Hormuz." You know, the the Strait of Hormuz was never closed for China since this war started.

[00:21:58]They were using the Strait of Hormuz without having any sort of difficulties.

[00:22:02]You know, Iran is, you know, their partner in the Middle East.

[00:22:07]And but when it comes to China, do you think they're It seems to me that the war in the Middle East has put them in a very different position right now. They're not They're even You know, just looking at the sequence before the war in Ukraine and after the war in Ukraine.

[00:22:26]Before the war in the Middle East and right now, what is China? We have the position leader going to, you know, to Beijing, meeting with Xi Jinping, the position leader in Taiwan.

[00:22:39]She went there meet, you know, This These are huge changes. I think Taiwan is learning something from the Middle East because from GCC countries, from what has happened so far. What is that in your opinion?

[00:22:54]Well, I think that Taiwan doesn't want to end up like Ukraine, you know, because they they use these these uh so-called allied nations as proxies to fight their fights.

[00:23:07]Uh you know, and and it does seem that this war is partly or maybe primarily motivated by weakening the position of of China, uh which is dumb and desperate, but it seems that this is what they're doing. This is why they're bombing the the the the China-Iran railway, which is part of the BRICS uh sorry, Belt and Road Initiative, uh which kind of smacks of the World War I scenario where the the Germans built Berlin to Baghdad railroad and the the British decided that they need to completely destroy all this. So they did. They They They even engineered the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire because most of that railway was going through Ottoman territories in the Middle East.

[00:24:00]And they orchestrated the Balkan wars, uprising against the Ottoman Empire, which which which was strong, you know, which had been present in the Balkans for 500 years.

[00:24:14]And then and then engineering World War I to destroy Germany, that which which they all did successfully.

[00:24:22]Now that power is no longer Germany, but it's China. And China is building alternative infrastructure uh so that they make make themselves resistant to maritime control of the choke points.

[00:24:35]And you know, the the trade choke points are things like uh Gibraltar, the Bosphorus, uh the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait, uh Strait of Hormuz, and then very important is Strait of Malacca.

[00:24:51]Right? Because I think that most of the most of the Chinese trade with the Western Asia and Europe goes through the Strait of Malacca, meaning like something like 80% or 90% or more.

[00:25:06]And so the potential Hormuz was Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb are uh two of the choke points, but more important one is the Strait of Malacca.

[00:25:21]And then we saw just today, 16th of April, 3 days ago, the US Secretary of War, Mr. Pig Pig Pete Hegseth went to Indonesia to sign a military cooperation agreement with uh with sorry, Malaysia.

[00:25:44]And uh it seems it seems it's not it's not completely clear from the communication that we saw.

[00:25:53]But it seemed that is that the idea is for the United States to be able to take control of the Strait of Malacca.

[00:25:59]So that they that they can again say like, "Oh yeah, we'll you know, we'll we'll keep the Strait open for you, but you you you know, it's going to be on our terms. We are in control. You're going to have to, you know, submit to our conditions and terms."

[00:26:15]And so with with the action that we see in bombing Iran, trying to take control of the Strait of Hormuz, trying to take control of the Strait of Malacca, it does seem that the that the at least in part, the grand strategy is aimed against China.

[00:26:37]The other part is, you know, supporting Israel so that they have this grand bridgehead into Western Asia.

[00:26:45]And so um the uh the talk You know, I I think that the idea that Trump had was to go to China as a victor.

[00:27:02]You know, to have to have really really strong cards to play against Xi Jinping.

[00:27:08]It didn't work out that way. And I think that this deal 3 days ago with the with military cooperation agreement with Malaysia was to try to get some new cards to play against China.

[00:27:24]But the whole world sees now what happens to the American friends and allies.

[00:27:30]Uh you know, it's it They they can see that that quip by by Henry Kissinger that it's dangerous to be an enemy with the United States, but it's deadly to be friends, that this this is literally the truth.

[00:27:48]Because look at what happened to Ukraine. It's practically destroyed.

[00:27:51]More than 1 million men have been sacrificed in in their proxy war against Russia.

[00:27:56]Uh look at what's what's happening to uh UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, who knows, Saudi Arabia.

[00:28:05]They all end up sacrificed as pawns in this game.

[00:28:10]And uh who knows, you know, maybe maybe you know, Pete Hegseth's attempts to get uh Malaysia on their side is not going to work out.

[00:28:22]But people in Taiwan can see.

[00:28:24]They can see what's going on.

[00:28:26]And they think like, "Do we want to end up like like Bahrain? Like Ukraine?

[00:28:31]Like all these countries that end up completely wasted and broken fighting somebody else's imperial war?"

[00:28:37]And so a lot of people are now probably realizing, "We we can't do this. This is This is And so of course, the leader of the opposition goes to Beijing to say, "We want a peaceful reintegration with China."

[00:28:53]And I think that you know, I remember some local elections that that were being held in Taiwan.

[00:29:00]And it turned out that significant majority of the people all voted for the for the for the for the parties that that were looking for friendly relations with China. So I think that this is already probably a dominant point of view in Taiwan.

[00:29:17]And I think that as as as as Trump administration shows itself to be uh incompetent and fumbling and very dangerous in their desperation, I think that more and more countries are going to be recognizing that it's it's not in their interest at all to be to be the pawns of the empire in this in this very dangerous game.

[00:29:40]CNN reported Alex, this report on CNN shows how Europe European countries are today militarily. It shows that their decision to not join the United States in the Strait of Hormuz to fight against Iran is not a mere political sort of decision because they know they're militarily not that much powerful to go with that plan. He said that they're weakened militaries.

[00:30:12]They're calling it a they're weakened militaries. And that's not a solution for them.

[00:30:18]What what is your understanding of the European countries and the way they're talking about the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz because Donald Trump it's obvious they tried to do everything. He put a lot of pressure on European countries in order to force them into the fight.

[00:30:35]And they what's so amazing to me that Benjamin Netanyahu wants American troops to fight for him.

[00:30:43]And then Donald Trump is afraid to put aircraft carrier in this zone, you know, in the reaching zone of the Iranian military says Europeans you have to go there and we're going to back up.

[00:30:57]It's it's it's almost funny. It's almost funny. If it would be funny if it wasn't so uh horribly dangerous and deadly.

[00:31:07]But uh yeah, Donald Trump has made just about every possible statement about anything, you know, so you can you can pick and choose what you believe, but none of it looks good. None of it None of it gives the impression that he's in control and that he knows what he is doing.

[00:31:24]And with regards to European allies of the United States the reality is that they are very weak.

[00:31:32]They're completely dependent on the United States. They do not have the logistical capability to send any significant forces to uh to the Middle East and to stay there, you know, as a as you know, as a viable power policing Bab el-Mandeb or policing Strait of Hormuz.

[00:31:53]Um they did join the operation um Prosperity Guardian that kicked off in March of 2024.

[00:32:03]No, sorry. In December of 2023.

[00:32:07]Uh to try to uh prevent the Ansar Allah from blocking uh maritime traffic through the Red Sea.

[00:32:17]And they failed miserably. They They failed miserably and Italian and French uh naval ships withdrew because they were shocked that they that the Yemenis were firing back at them. And when they came under fire, they were under shock and they said like, "Oh well, wait wait a minute.

[00:32:39]This is not fair. We get to bomb others.

[00:32:41]Nobody gets to shoot back at us."

[00:32:43]But you know, they they basically thought, "Okay, we're not doing this. Goodbye. We're We're leaving this this." And then, you know, Operation Rough Rider, they didn't even participate which was uh 15 March 2025, you know, when Trump came to power and then he was like, "Okay, now we're going to bomb these Yemenis like nobody's ever seen before." And then a few weeks later he had to say, "Okay, okay. So let's make a deal."

[00:33:09]Because he couldn't he couldn't defeat them. So what would Europeans with their with their you know, um pathetic uh naval assets do in in in the Strait of Hormuz in in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman?

[00:33:28]They would just get beat up and and sunk probably.

[00:33:31]So they're not even they're not even thinking about participating in that more even we have to also take into account that their priority now is the war against Russia and as far as as far as the leadership of the United of the European Union and countries like Great Britain, France, and Germany uh this is their priority project. You know, they they will do everything in their power to get the war against Russia going in earnest.

[00:34:04]And remember their their due date is is the anticipated date is um 2028 2029.

[00:34:14]And by then they hope that they will be prepared for an all out all out war against Russia.

[00:34:21]And it seems that they are dead serious about it.

[00:34:26]And so uh going to help Trump in in the Western Asia uh would probably weaken them. And then, you know, Ukraine is a higher priority war for them because you know, this is all part of the Mackinderian geopolitical strategy uh which has the objective as as its objective to control of the Eurasian landmass.

[00:34:56]And the thinking is who control Eastern Europe controls the heartland. Who controls the heartland controls the world island, meaning Eurasian landmass.

[00:35:06]And who controls the world island controls the world. So the the top priority area is Eastern Europe, meaning Ukraine.

[00:35:16]And so winning the war in Eastern Europe um by proxy of Ukraine is the highest priority now.

[00:35:25]They were prepared to fight that war until the last Ukrainian.

[00:35:30]And now we're coming very close to running out of the last Ukrainian and that means that they will try to mobilize Poles, Bulgarians, Romanians, Moldovans, Germans, French, Brit Brit the British, everybody.

[00:35:46]This is the European obsession.

[00:35:50]And I think that this is also largely the reason why they're not interested in diluting themselves in Western Asia. They're They're happy to leave that to the United States.

[00:36:04]And even if the United States loses that war as as they have done, it doesn't matter. It's Eastern Europe for them.

[00:36:12]There is a very interesting player in Europe which is Spain.

[00:36:18]Reopening embassy in Tehran, going to China, redefining the relationship of partnership with China under tremendous pressure of the Trump administration and them. They have been threatening them everything, you know, cutting the trade, everything, putting pressure, sanctions, but he doesn't care about He cares, but he feels that the future is for for Spain would be them.

[00:36:51]How How do you see the way that Spain is behaving these days?

[00:36:57]And is that going to be a new sort of move on the part of European countries or we have we are more some we are somehow optimistic if you if we feel that way.

[00:37:11]Uh I sincerely don't know Nima because Pedro Sanchez to me is a very murky character, you know, he's he's making all the right sounds with regards to Iran.

[00:37:25]He's making a lot of right sounds with regards to the Palestine uh war against Gaza and so forth.

[00:37:34]So I would give him credit for that if he if it wasn't for also his government's complete uh commitment to the United Nations uh uh 2030 agenda and uh uh flooding the the flooding their own nation with immigrants in in in a completely uncontrolled fashion.

[00:37:54]And uh you know, implementing a program of censorship and repression against their own people.

[00:38:02]So I don't I don't know really what to think about Spain or the the government of Pedro Sanchez.

[00:38:09]Uh I'd like to be cautiously optimistic, but I'm I'm I'm a little bit suspicious of him.

[00:38:17]And then, you know, we have another element in in in in Hungary Yeah. which I think is extremely interesting because uh we had we had the Peter Magyar replace Victor Orban. But so far it seems to me that Peter Magyar's policies are almost exactly the same as Victor Orban's. So I'm wondering did Did the Hungarians uh somehow manage to deceive the European Union into into supporting a candidate that they thought was going to be their own, you know, Trojan horse in Hungary, but in fact maybe he was set up by by Victor Orban's party to to pretend that he's in opposition, but he isn't. I It's very early to to to know the answers to these questions, but let's say that I would be a little bit more optimistic about Peter Magyar at this point than I would be about Pedro Sanchez.

[00:39:20]But I I could be wrong. Who knows? We'll find out.

[00:39:25]You know, the war in the Middle East was a an opportunity for India. Many people believe that India could be that country to bring all sides together.

[00:39:38]But as we see it's not India, it's Pakistan doing that right now.

[00:39:43]Pakistan is bringing Iran and and the United States together to talk, and we had yesterday Munir going to Iran with and he's going to be in Washington soon to send to give the message to Washington.

[00:40:04]And I think How how do you feel about Pakistan, the role of Pakistan so far comparing to what India did? India was No, India is huge when it comes to BRICS, and many people thought that India would play that important role, but you see India just removing itself from the scene, from the equation.

[00:40:27]They're not commenting on anything.

[00:40:30]They're just there for I I don't know, to not comment about anything, but is that going to help them? Is that going to be a positive point for point for India in a long run?

[00:40:45]Well, I think that India has damaged its own diplomatic standing and their prestige uh over this war.

[00:40:55]You know, on the eve of the war Narendra Modi goes to Israel and he embraces uh the genocidal maniac Benjamin Netanyahu as his as his great friend and and it's There's there's this strange loyalty to Israel from India that I don't quite understand other than their uh Islam derangement and They also have a bit of a Pakistan derangement syndrome.

[00:41:30]And they seem extremely jealous of the prestige that Pakistan now enjoys in the world and the credibility by, you know, working hard to broker the ceasefire to bring the the two belligerent sides together even though, you know, Iran was Iran's stance was quite hardened. They didn't even want to talk to the Americans at all.

[00:41:54]Pakistan brokered with help of China and other players, but they brought them to Pakistan. They hosted them. They organized the the meeting. They provided the security for the Iranian delegations so that they would come and then, you know, the Americans and the Israelis wouldn't kill them you know, as they were negotiating.

[00:42:14]So, Pakistan now looks very good. They look very credible. They look like a constructive goodwill player in this world.

[00:42:23]Uh in spite of Pakistan itself being something of a repressive dictatorship and, you know, many Pakistanis live in fear of their government. But nevertheless, you know, they played a very positive role for the world for the for for for for the future of peace in the world.

[00:42:42]And the Indians played a very very poor role. They stabbed Iran in the back.

[00:42:47]It seems that the the sinking of the Iranian frigate after after those military games in India was was was was deliberate or at least it was done kind of with a with a with an acquiescence by the Indians who then failed to come to the aid of the Iranian sailors.

[00:43:09]Uh It smacks of betrayal.

[00:43:14]Narendra Modi's embrace of Benjamin Netanyahu looked awful, just awful.

[00:43:21]Not only the thing itself, even the timing of it.

[00:43:24]>> [cough] [clears throat] >> No condemnation of of Israel of Israel, no condemnation of the genocide.

[00:43:32]And then, you know, every comment about the Pakistan roles Pakistan's role in this, they try to demean it. They try to they try to pretend that no, Pakistan doesn't deserve any credit at all.

[00:43:46]So, they just I don't know. I think that they damaged their standing in the world.

[00:43:51]And I think that they even damaged their standing uh in the BRICS group, you know.

[00:43:59]Meanwhile, Iran has risen.

[00:44:02]BRICS could now be um Brazil, Russia, Iran, China.

[00:44:10]I I think they've they've put themselves in the in in the you know, in the back of the queue.

[00:44:19]Yeah.

[00:44:22]Alex, when it comes to the policies of sanctioning other countries, Scott Bessent yesterday said that the sanctions are are going to be back on Iran and Russia in few days.

[00:44:41]What do they want? Is is is that going to be zero-sum game?

[00:44:46]Or because the whole the whole concept of sanctions is based on zero-sum game.

[00:44:52]You you are with us or against us. That's why we are sanctioning you.

[00:44:58]But they know that the power of the, you know, the power of sanctions or is reducing as time goes by. They know how the things are changing. This sort of alternative in the whole calculation in my opinion.

[00:45:18]But they're doubling down. They're not understanding the new situation. Scott Bessent is doubling down on sanctions.

[00:45:26]How is that going to help the global economy?

[00:45:30]That's not the case. Sanctioning other countries is not going to Right now, Russia and Iran are playing a very important role in the whole calculation, but the they have decided to go in that direction. What is that in your opinion?

[00:45:45]Uh it seems to me that the United States has been using this this uh weapon of sanctions for so long that it's just uh you know, the the hammer looking for nails to to to to to strike it.

[00:46:04]You know, it's it's it's one of the main tools, and so this is almost like a knee-jerk reaction. Well, you know, uh if you don't do as we say, we're going to sanction you. That's the punishment.

[00:46:15]And you know, initially sanctions um There were certain expectations about sanctions that I I forget now exactly what it was, but uh you know, in the United States they calculated that if they impose sanctions on a country, then almost automatically the stock markets go down in that country, so many GDP points will be lost, and so they had a They had practically fairly They had fairly specific predictions about the effects on of sanctions on sanctioned nations.

[00:46:55]So, they knew that this would put a tremendous pressure on the on the governments and maybe even lead to their overthrow if the people are very unhappy.

[00:47:04]And so a consensus was built up about the effectiveness of sanctions on targeted countries.

[00:47:15]However, if you sanction Serbia or Iraq or I don't know um Costa Rica, whatever. I whatever.

[00:47:29]Let's say relatively small economies, then it delivers large damage to those countries, but very little damage to the to the United States.

[00:47:41]But if you end up sanctioning 20 or 30% of the global GDP, that's also the global trade that you exclude yourself from.

[00:47:51]Right? And so the more you the more you use the sanctions weapon, the more you end up sanctioning and isolating yourself.

[00:48:01]And so if you've come to the point of oh, we're going to sanction everybody who do does business with the Iran, we're going to sanction everybody who does this business with India with sorry, with China, we're going to sanction everybody who does business with Russia, uh you end up pushing everybody away from yourself.

[00:48:21]Right? And so not only are you sanctioning and isolating yourself, you're giving people a very very strong incentive to develop alternative systems of trade.

[00:48:34]And so we see that the role of the US dollar as a as a dominant trade currency is collapsing.

[00:48:42]Uh the role of US dollars is as a as a reserve currency is collapsing.

[00:48:47]And uh we see that the use of uh domestic currency between countries soon soon now like if they're in the bilateral trade, they're increasingly conducting bilateral trades in their local currencies.

[00:49:02]So, I don't know, Brazil will trade with China in yuan and in in Brazilian real, which means that no money goes to the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, which means that no money uh is being recycled because, you know, uh the the bank accounts owned by uh countries like China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, uh Russia, and so forth would end up being recycled into United States Treasuries because what do you do with those balances? You maybe have a few hundred billion sitting at the Federal Reserve, well, you're going to buy US treasuries to generate you 2 3 4% in interest income, right?

[00:49:47]But what what the result of that is that you're effectively financing the American government.

[00:49:55]All your all your wealth that that's stuck in in the Federal Reserve accounts end up being recycled in the US Treasury, so you're effectively financing the American government.

[00:50:06]Well, the countries that are sanctions sanctioned and included for that excluded from that then do not hold reserves in US dollars at the Federal Reserve Bank and will not fund American um Treasuries American the American government. So, that weapon ends up blowing up in your face and the more you use it, the more it blows up in your face except uh the you know, a rational assessment maybe we shouldn't be doing this anymore is lacking because what you have in its place is a group think that just latched on to this we can bludgeon everybody into submission by using sanctions against them.

[00:50:53]That thinking has gotten so entrenched that nobody second guesses it anymore.

[00:50:58]So, it's it's almost like a knee-jerk reaction.

[00:51:01]Are you going to supply weapons to to Iran? Boom, we're going to sanction you.

[00:51:05]And we're going to issue letters to Chinese banks and we're going to Meanwhile, the rest of the world is thinking maybe we need to get away from all this.

[00:51:15]Let's see about trading with the Chinese in Chinese yuan, with the Russians in in Russian rubles, with the Brazilians in Brazilian real and leave this mad hegemon to their own devices. I think that this is what's happening actually.

[00:51:32]So, at one point, you know the effect of this is is almost predictable. At one point, you know if there are no foreign buyers for your debt the only way you're going to be able to sell your bonds is by your central bank printing the money, which is called monetizing debt which reliably leads to to inflation.

[00:51:57]And so, we're going to see uh rising rates of inflation in inflation in the United States and we're going to see uh a collapse of the US dollars. Not not not from one day to the next, you know, this is a process that tends to span uh many years.

[00:52:15]But this is inevitably coming and the more they sanction their trade partners, the faster it will come. You know, they're basically accelerating the process. And then just last thing to say uh mm this is this is I think a certainty, but we have to also take into account that other nations like Japan, the European Union nations and and Great Britain are in an even worse shape and I think that Great Britain probably is the weak link that is going to be the first one to collapse.

[00:52:50]Yeah.

[00:52:52]Alex, before wrapping up, the other dimension of what's going on in the Middle East is this desperate attempt on the part of the Zionists that they want to make the war an ideological war the war between Muslims and Christians.

[00:53:09]They want they want they they're doing everything in that direction to make it to make the case.

[00:53:15]And it seems that they have managed Donald Trump in you know, they have deceived him or they bought him into that sort of mindset.

[00:53:27]And here is what Tucker Carlson reported.

[00:53:33]Alex.

[00:53:35]That same tweet or truth he used the F word on Easter Sunday and then he seemed to make fun of Islam. Praise Allah, he said. So, in one short statement of about 110 words he seemed to give the finger to the world's two largest religions, Christianity and Islam. Hmm. And then exactly 1 week later, also on Sunday, the Christian holy day he attacked the Pope the leader of the world's largest religion and largest Christian denomination and attacked him personally and said basically he's only Pope because of me.

[00:54:14]He's bad. The Pope is bad.

[00:54:17]And then later that day maybe most interestingly, bafflingly of all he sent out this this meme.

[00:54:27]Take a look at this.

[00:54:29]Now, there two on the screen. The one on the right is the one that he sent out and it's himself. It's Donald Trump, President of the United States, dressed as Jesus healing a man. You can see the healing power coming off of his right hand.

[00:54:45]Now, the image on the left of your screen is the original image and it was floating around the internet. Who knows exactly where it came from. Uh but it's been there for quite some time. The one on the right is the one the president sent out White House communications officer whoever does this sent out and you'll notice that it's been changed and the American soldier over the president's head, the president as Jesus' head has been changed and is now, if you look very carefully, a demon, some kind of winged creature of hell.

[00:55:17]So, it goes from an image that suggests, you know, healing and light to an image that suggests, I don't know, a scene from Revelation, John's vision on the Isle of Patmos the end times, the apocalypse, who knows, nothing good.

[00:55:31]It suggests demonic power because there is a demon in it.

[00:55:35]So, he sent that out.

[00:55:37]Yeah.

[00:55:39]It Alex I I really believe that the Zionists they don't have any religion. They're not Jewish, Christian or anything.

[00:55:48]The only, you know, they're basically their religion is to be racist in my opinion.

[00:55:55]And but they're trying to make this sort of religious war between Muslim and Christians.

[00:56:02]Are they going to be successful? Are they going to achieve that in your opinion?

[00:56:06]I would say no, Nima. I would say no because I'm seeing you know, this is uh what you describe is a scenario that they themselves have planned for. It's called the clash of civilizations.

[00:56:20]And basically it's meant to be a major Armageddon type clash between Christendom and Islam.

[00:56:29]And this would be like one of their major project in the same way that uh the the the COVID-19 pandemic was one of their major projects.

[00:56:41]And then the war against Russia through the proxy of Ukraine was one of their major projects.

[00:56:47]And then the war in the Middle East against Iran was one of their major projects.

[00:56:51]And then uh war on China through Taiwan was part of that as well.

[00:56:58]And we've seen that they failed at every single one of these big projects and it seems to me that they're failing at this one again because what what I'm noticing in the social media is that there seems to be some kind of an awakening going on a realization that in fact Christendom and Islam should be sister religions because they're very very close in fact.

[00:57:22]Well, Judaism as well in its original form, right?

[00:57:25]Uh these are all, you know, people who get deep into this and I have a few friends who are uh very very deep students of of Abrahamic religions. They say that basically it's one in the same religion in in effect with some changes in form.

[00:57:41]Um a lot of people in the West have been uh brainwashed with an Islamophobia which is which is false because you know, we think we understand Islam based on uh what mainstream media has been peddling for more than two decades now, practically from the start of the global war on terror and even before that.

[00:58:08]You know, Muslims were always the the terrorist and then they attacked us on 9/11 and and then there was uh Al-Qaeda and then there was Al-Nusra and Boko Haram is currently slaughtering Christians in Nigeria and so forth.

[00:58:24]But people forget or they they choose to ignore the fact that all of these factions of Islam were in fact created by Western intelligence agencies like the CIA, like the MI6 and the Mossad.

[00:58:40]And that they these intelligence agencies positively want Christians and Muslims to be fighting wars against each other, you know. They want this Armageddon type uh conflict in the world.

[00:58:57]And we also know that the British government is deeply involved in education in the Islamic world, which they have you know, they have done together with the CIA and they use the money of the Gulf monarchies to to um create a whole alternative um curriculum with with tainted Qurans and textbooks that teach a very distorted version of Islam and they teach that in not just around the world in in in you know Chechnya and Dagestan and and and Afghanistan and wherever you you want. They even do that in France and Belgium and the and the UK.

[00:59:46]And they you know, for example, in in in Gaza and the West Bank, the British government had I think 30,000 teachers on their payroll, and they provided the the textbook for what was being taught to the children in Palestine.

[01:00:05]And then, you know, when people went and looked into what's in these textbooks, they were very they were very radicalizing textbooks deliberately.

[01:00:14]They were radicalizing the Palestinian youth to to think that it's Islamic to sacrifice themselves in the holy war uh to to to wield violence against their oppressors and so on and so forth.

[01:00:34]So, this is a this is a reality that we have to take into into consideration.

[01:00:38]You know, that this is let's say distorted Judaism and distorted Islam.

[01:00:44]And then also Christianity, you know, like if you judge Christianity by uh by Trump's spiritual advisers like Paula White and all these American televangelists, you would think that these are complete lunatics. You would think that Christianity is a is itself a a violent, terrible religion. But that's not the truth.

[01:01:04]And I think that in the mainstream or at least in in in a large segment of uh of um Christians in the world today, I think that the awareness that we should actually be brothers and sisters with our fellow Muslims and Jews is is rising, actually.

[01:01:28]So, I think that even this grand project of clash of civilizations is starting to is starting to dissipate. It's starting to get away from them.

[01:01:39]And I I think that it will ultimately fail. That people will realize that we we we we don't really have a a good reason to be at war with one another.

[01:01:49]Uh peace is better for everybody.

[01:01:52]And, you know, Muslims, like Christians, revere Jesus Christ. They have a different view of them, but they consider him to be a legitimate uh prophet of God. They uh Muslims, you know, not Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, you know, violent violent assassins, but the mainstream Muslims, they worship and revere Mother Mary.

[01:02:17]Uh we've seen in in in in Iran, they have in Tehran, they have a subway station dedicated to Mother Mary, which portrays her very beautifully with with with due respect and reverence.

[01:02:31]And I think that the Christians are starting to see through this.

[01:02:36]So, that's a that's a good thing, and I think that in the same way that in 2020, they were promising us a a new normal that will never go away, that will stay with us forever, uh and then all that unraveled and failed, I think that this clash of civilization will also unravel and fail.

[01:02:57]Yeah.

[01:02:58]Yeah.

[01:02:59]Hope so.

[01:03:01]>> [clears throat] >> Thank you. Thank you so much, Alex, for being with us today.

[01:03:04]Great night.

[01:03:05]>> Great pleasure, as always, Naim. I thank you for the invite, and until the next time.

[01:03:09]Yeah. See you soon, Alex. Bye-bye. Take care. Bye. Take care.