Radio War Nerd EP #602 — Understanding Iran, feat. Hamidreza Azizi

I find it ridiculous at this point to refer to any faction of the Iranian government as “hardliners.” Israel is a nuclear armed fascist theocracy doing lebensraum across the entire Middle East and its backers from the most violent empire on earth is operating out of a pure Freudian death drive final solution with zero domestic political or structural constraints beyond manufacturing a volume of arms required to finish the job. Doesn’t this mean that the “hardline” factions were always right? Doesn’t their interpretation of reality have a valid claim to being the correct interpretation? And sincerely, what is Iran supposed to do right now from a negotiating perspective? Their demands are totally valid and legitimate. And even when they demonstrate a willingness to negotiate they have to legitimately fear that the entire process will just be used as cover for another decapitation. The only hardliners in this situation are progenitors of fundamental U.S. and Israeli policy. (Btw, love the guest. I follow his work. I get that he’s Iranian. But he lived in Europe for a reason, and the unspoken assumption of any desire to negotiate in good faith with any Iranian faction by the U.S. and Israel is the result of not knowing how incomprehensibly evil the American state really is and has become)

I'm curious as to why Khamenei saw the U.S. as in decline. Of course we all have our reasons for believing this, but I wonder what his reasons were. Was this something that was informed by his watching the Soviet Union collapse early in his political career? Was it seeing the defeat in Iraq? Something else?

Fantastic guest and interview

One of the classic blunders: never get involved in a land invasion of southern Lebanon

It's worth repeating that the difference between Israels fight vs Hezbollah then vs now is that when the genocide started, Hezbollah voluntarily entered on Gaza's side to try to help them, but they knew that this would potentially make north Lebanon a target and that therefore Hez had to be diligent about ending their involvement before Israel punished the north. Nowadays, from what I've heard, Hezbollah is going all out because it's their last fight - they basically see the future as either victory or death, no other possibilities.

The vibe I'm getting from this interview as well as previous commentators is that the iranian prez is effectively boxed out and isolated due to his past support for appeasing USA/Israel

Great guest - would absolutely vote for a repeat!

Another fascinating show and insightful guest, thanks guys.

There was a 400 billion dollar investment agreement signed between China and Iran in 2021. From the Iranian perspective(s), why has that agreement proceeded slowly up to now ?

Thanks for this.

Oh exciting! I follow this gentleman on the hell site already! This should be good! -a non war hungry Iranian diasperoid