Latest / FDD Morning Brief / The deal that dooms the Iranian people | feat. Moj Mahdara

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The deal that dooms the Iranian people | feat. Moj Mahdara · FDD Morning Brief

• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Good morning.
• 0:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's Monday, June 1st, the multi-front war in the Middle East is now 968 days old.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host, Jonathan Chanzer.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the FTD Morning Brief.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: The United States and the Islamic of Iran exchange hostilities overnight with the U.S. attacking multiple targets in Iran and what is described as self-defense by the Department of War.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Iranian attacks on Kuwait not so much self-defense for the record.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: U.S. and the Iranian regime have obviously not reached an agreement that would extend the ceasefire 60 days and potentially then start to iron out some of those thorny details.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: The big sticking point from, well, you know, the bombing, apart from the bombing relates to the enriched uranium currently situated deep down under the sands of Iran.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: But in the meantime, subtrabling new developments, the regime has now reopened the entrance to an estimated 18 missile and weapon silos that have been bombed during the war.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: The regime has started to operate some of its natural gas fields, and the regime is also attack Kurdish groups in Iraq.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Regime leaders say they don't trust Trump.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't trust this regime, and I don't like what I'm watching right now.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not even a little.
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd like to see this regime get put in its place.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that U.S.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barak, will serve as special presidential envoy for Syrian Iraq while remaining Ambassador to Turkey.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is really, really not good.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Barak made headlines in April when he stated Turkey is not a country to be mess with.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was his attempt to blame Israel for tensions between Ankara and Jerusalem over Ankara's Hamas support.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Barack also equated his Bala with Israel, remarking that both were, quote, equally untrustworthy, and quote, never mind the Turkey's about a proud patron of Hamas.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Never mind that the Turkish government is laundered billions on behalf of the Iranian regime.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Barack's job is to represent American interests, that means keeping the Turks in line.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: It means criticizing the Erdogan regime for sponsoring Hamas.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It means halting the flow of Turkish weapons platforms to the al-Qaeda government in Syria.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: It means ending Turkish support to his fallen Lebanon.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: It means demanding an end to Turkish harassment of Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Med.
• 2:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it means ripping Erdogan a new one.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: for arresting the head of the Turkish political opposition on the eve of an election.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and don't even get me started on Turkey and Russia.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Erdogan purchased Russia's S400 air defense system back in 2019, a move that got Turkey sanctioned and expelled from the F-35 program.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And guess who wants those sanctions lifted?
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's right, Tom Barak.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: This guy's a huge liability folks.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: The president needs to hear this loud and clear
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, for your headlines, headline one, these really military is on the move and Lebanon.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: The IDF has said to move further north to do more damage to his balla.
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: The IDF over the weekend captured both for Castle.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: For the first time since the IDF withdraw in the year 2000, 26 years later after a series of his balla attacks, these rallies are back.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Proving that withdrawal doesn't work.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not on the battlefield, not in the bedroom.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yikes.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: In all seriousness that his ball of threat continues to plague the communities in order in Israel and the terror group continues to take shots at IDF soldiers.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: For those interested in Beaufort Castle, by the way, there is a 2007 movie produced by an Israeli director and it's called originally Beaufort.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not an easy movie, but it is well worth a watch for those looking to get a bit of background.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Headline 2!
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to keep a Lebanon and note here that the Europeans are nudging their way into this theater.
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Brits are saying that they want the Israeli advance into Lebanon to end.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: The French have done the same.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And now, Emmanuel Macron, from France, was said to have chatted phonely with the Saudi Crown Prince discussing regional developments and maritime security.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: which is where I think all of our European allies should be focusing right now, not Lebanon.
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: They should be working to open the state of poor moves.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not talking about Lebanon or Gaza or any of these other things, because these are not anything close to their national interest folks, but the state, yeah, well, that's about their own oil and about their own oil prices.
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So stick to your lane, fellas, what yeah?
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: headline three, Ahmed Alshara, the newish leader of Syria says he wants all of the remaining sanctions on his country lifted.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had a call with Donald Trump over the weekend and I got to say, I'm not sold on the idea of lifting sanctions.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, things are more calm.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, things are better than they have been in a long time, but better is relative and Syria is complicated.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure we can trust this regime right now.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe ever, this is the time to move deliberately and slowly
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: in that country.
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Headline four, one of the biggest Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Kataib Hizballa, says it will not disarm, despite calls from the United States to do so.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is huge problem in Iraq folks, not a new one, of course, but the country is teeming with soldiers who are loyal to the Islamic Republic and its revolutionary ideology, not the state where they're based or the leader that runs the country.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is a problem that has to be solved.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: But for right now, it's not a burning one.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those militias in Iraq have been the dog that didn't bark both during the 2025, 12-day war, and what we might now call the never-ending ceasefire war of 2026.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And quick hit or headline five, Iranian President Masood Pizashkiyana's reportedly submitted his resignation to Mojtavahamini.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hamini, you'll recall, has not been seen in public since he sustained injuries, or maybe died during an initial air strike that killed his father.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's still weekend at Bernie's time over there in Iran,
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And everybody pretending that the possibly deceased Mochdaba is actually leading the country insanity.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's it for me on the headline.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's time to bring on today's guest, Mochbachtara is an Iranian-American activist based in LA.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Moch also runs a venture capital firm called Kinship Partners, which was co-founded by an actress you may have heard of named Guinnath Paltro.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Moch is a fascinating person with lots to say about the Iran situation, the Iranian diaspora,
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: we caught up just before the weekend began.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a listen.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the program, Mojmahdara.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, so let's get started here on what is going on inside the Islamic Republic.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what we hear right now is that there is a click of people that are still running the show.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's maybe five or six of them.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I guess it's mostly IRGC.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: It sounds like the supreme leader is not around.
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not making much decisions.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, a cardboard cut out maybe only
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: show being run.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: How is this circus continuing to go on?
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm such a, um, oh, I'm so, uh, intensely agitated on this topic that
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: A question like that immediately invokes for me when I think of the Islamic Republic, I think of Europe and what conversations are being had there that sort of keep this IRGC and this regime in place, there's, there's many, many, many people outside the country of Iran that are currently in communication and discussions with, you know, the heads of the IRGC.
• 7:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would imagine at this point there's a real land grab between this, you know, group of probably six to 10 people across the region, but who are most definitely IRGC leadership, laying grabbing over who's going to be in charge and who's laying grabbing for negotiations, I think that anyone and everyone within that government that has any leverage outside is using those relationships to essentially shop for.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: power.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, I think there's a laying grab internally for power, but I also think there's a land grab externally for Iran's power and resources.
• 8:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think, you know, most importantly, the countries surrounding Iran are looking for opportunities and leveraging their way into.
• 8:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: what the future of Iran looks like and I think Europe is heavy heavily involved in this conversation and I think there's a lot of back office dealings right now around economics, power, security, safety, and resources and who gets to have those resources and at what prices.
• 8:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would imagine that the Islamic Republic is gambling away the future of the Iranian people right now to stay in power and they're negotiating with all of their
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: you know minerals and resources and waterways and so there's truly back office negotiation.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think anyone should be confused that this regime is staying empowered just because they're so powerful.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's an entire support system for for them out in the world right now.
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, well, I mean, a couple questions come to mind.
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, are there any actors out there you think are on the right side of history in the regional players that you think may have a stake in what's going on?
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, is Azerbaijan to be trusted?
• 9:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is Iraq to be trusted?
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, traditionally, Iran has been manipulating Iraq, not the other way around.
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, now you sort of see the countries getting
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Who should we be working with to try to steer things in the right direction from a regional perspective?
• 9:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the most important voice that's missing from this conversation is the Iranian people, right?
• 9:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: The one group of people that have not been given a vote, a referendum, a chance even access to the Internet access to travel access to contact their families is 92 million people called the Iranian people.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think the Iranian diaspora has also been sideline here who's very much called for, you know, a regime change at, you know, some people would say it any cost, but willing to do what it takes to push this regime out.
• 10:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, the Iranian people inside the country most definitely deserve a saying this especially because they be given their lives.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: to this movement.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that is so disingenuous of all of these governments to not be giving them a seat at the table.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that there's no world and where any change for the better could happen without the partnership of the Gulf States.
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that, you know, for them, look, these are countries that previously had a relationship with Iran and Iranian people.
• 10:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you look back to pre-1979, most of this region was in partnership and of some kind with Iran, I think that that's something that people still have nostalgia for.
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: I personally think that whether it's a partnership with
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, I think all of these countries and all of these groups have a huge stake and what goes on here because they're all pushing for modernization to the Western world.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: They want economic opportunity, they want technological opportunity and so it's very difficult to
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: gentrify your region when your next door to a neighbor that's extremely problematic.
• 11:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so a lot of people believe that those countries don't necessarily want the good for the Ronnie and people.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that there are smart enough to know that what's good for the Ronnie and people in the long term will be good for the region, but it's very difficult.
• 11:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: to be the only ones who are willing to push for change when the European countries and America are so taxidaisable and ambivalent about supporting the will of the Iranian people.
• 11:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so do we have a perfect partner?
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: No.
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are there people that we should be working with?
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
• 11:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that the Gulf States have invested interest in transitioning to normalization, which is what they want, what the West, more than anything, which is, you know, they want to be able to have their open AI data centers and, you know, Amazon and, you know, people vacationing in the region and they don't want war.
• 12:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think, you know, we have to sort of look to where there's opportunity and I think economic prosperity has always been the best way to get people to motivate towards more peaceful outcomes.
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: um, except when you offer economic prosperity to this regime, which we have done and they've rejected it, but maybe that's another story for another time.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, I want to dig into the people of a rod.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think you're right that they've not been given the opportunity to drive their own outcomes.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: They tried obviously, uh, back in January and we saw this horrific outcome of tens of thousands of people slaughtered by a completely and just utterly brutal regime.
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think since then, the conversation is stopped about the people of Iran.
• 12:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the thing that I guess continues to come up, and this may be provocative, but I really want to hear your answer on this.
• 13:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: People say that the Iranians themselves cannot get their act together, that you have 51% Persians, and you have 49% minorities, and the minorities hate each other, and they hate the Persian majority, that the bluech, and the Kurds, and the Azarees, and the Bahai, and everybody else, that they all can't
• 13:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, agree on the color of, I don't know, Persian rice.
• 13:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So what are we to do with this matrix of ethnic and sectarian interests?
• 13:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: How do we unify them?
• 13:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And do you think they're ready?
• 13:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think the most
• 13:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think this is sort of a storyline that's been sold.
• 13:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think through regime apologists and reformists for the past few decades, sort of in the era of the JCPOA and NIAC.
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's no doubt in my mind at these ethnic minorities and also cast, right?
• 14:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like class minorities, sort of cast groups within the country have their differences.
• 14:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that Iranian people have always been incredibly nationalistic.
• 14:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: through their differences.
• 14:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: They have always been about being Persian, you know, Iranian first, Iran, the concept of Iran has been a very important thing for every single sort of ethnic minority within that region.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think maintaining that regional integrity is also really important.
• 14:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think you're dealing with a country that's been dealing with sanctions, war, internal
• 14:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: militias and proxies around the region to conduct kinds of terrorist actions, whether it's in Lebanon or in Palestine, Gaza, Israel, Syria.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's kind of go on and on.
• 14:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's no shortage of videos out there from Iranians in the country, damning the Islamic Republic for their investment in the proxies over their own people.
• 15:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think the one thing that does unite all Iranians is their choice for change.
• 15:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think if they were given the opportunity for a
• 15:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: to vote out this Islamic Republic.
• 15:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: They would absolutely do that.
• 15:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, what would they choose to have instead?
• 15:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is it a democracy?
• 15:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is it a republic?
• 15:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is a constitutional monarchy?
• 15:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is it a monarchy?
• 15:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is it, you know, what is it?
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's for them to decide.
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think in all fairness to them.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I've said this to many people, the amount of trauma and stress and anxiety.
• 15:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: This, this, this people are
• 15:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's unfair to put on them like now you have to decide that you're exact future and in your I think we sort of saw the fall out of that little bit in Egypt where like there was sort of like a transition in a rush into what was next.
• 15:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that what really did make sense was a transition for the Iranian people of being able to have a moment of transition so that they could vote for their referendum and and ultimately decide.
• 16:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is the government they want that best represents them as a people, but I do not think that their differences are more than what is heets them united, which is their love of Iran and Iranian people and I think that's what's amazing about Iran is our ethnic differences is our dialectal differences, is our religious differences is our class differences and I think that
• 16:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is kind of like an ongoing dialogue for them talking about this all the time to kind of appease people into this concept of that that change must come from within Iran.
• 16:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I personally do not believe that.
• 16:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that if the two most powerful armies in the world cannot topple this on a group of like how in the world will the Iranian people?
• 16:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, I think I have extreme amounts of faith in the nationality, and I also understand that there's a lot of history there, whether it's through blue, or the Kurdish, or the Aussie, like there's a lot of differences there.
• 17:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you look at the Baha'i community and how badly they've been treated, the Christian community, how badly they've been treated, the Afghani community, how badly they've been treated.
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, there's trauma there and it's going to take a long time for us to get past that trauma, but I do think we have love of country and nationalism more than we do wanting to be at war with each other.
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I think a terrific answer.
• 17:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now I've got to ask, though, and we're recording this just as people are listening on Friday afternoon.
• 17:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are hearing right now that there could be a deal on the table, a new memorandum of understanding where the United States would effectively recognize the Islamic Republic and sign a deal with it that would enable the regime to live on.
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: how do you respond to that when you think about that as a policy, you know, we're basically trading stability in the Persian Gulf for allowing the regime to stay in place.
• 18:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I cannot think of a more disingenuous
• 18:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: disingenuous vial thing that I can ever think of as an American and as an Iranian.
• 18:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is it's sort of unforgivable to me.
• 18:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's really unforegivable to drag Iranian people like through the JCPO way, undo the JCPO way, knowing it's on the back of the green movement into the massacres of 2019, into the Massa Mini Massacre, into this January Massacre, through October 7th, through the proxies, Lebanon, Syria, and to the tell the entire region, like we support this government,
• 18:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do I don't know how we look ourselves in the mirror after that and and have love like I I'm I'm going to be holding my head down for a really long time if that's the case because I did say on record that I did not think that's who we were as a people and there's just shame in that decision it's a terrible decision it's basically saying that we.
• 19:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: We give up on the idea of peace, we give up on the idea of normalization, we give up on the idea of democracy and freedom, we give up on human rights, like we literally just give up on human rights.
• 19:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it sets Lebanon and Syria and Iraq and Israel and Palestine completely up to fail.
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's no world in where we have peace with Islamic Republic because the very reason for their being, the actual within the sort of actual fibers and within their government, within their constant is the destruction of the West.
• 19:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: So how can we
• 19:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: How can we have a partner that, you know, we're not talking about North Korea that kind of like just those out on their own and so like we're going to just keep to ourselves like they can't be running in government doesn't know how to not behave like an empire they're either a positive empire or they're a negative empire and right now I don't believe that they're going to ever stop.
• 20:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, look, I've got similar concerns, and obviously we won't know until this episode airs, whether that deal is struck or not, and I have obviously, I mean, I'm worried sick about this because I don't know how this was the moment, right?
• 20:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was the moment, the moment that the regime was supposed to fall.
• 20:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, here's, I guess, maybe, I don't know, it's a counterfactual, it's a theory.
• 20:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: How would you feel if you heard that a deal was struck, but that in another three months time, that you found out that the Trump administration was arming and funding and providing intelligence and providing secure communications to various fighting factions with any Ron, and that there would be some kind of covert action after the regime was already weakened,
• 21:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We opened up the straight and poor moves so that we could keep oil flowing for the rest of the world and then came back for another round quietly with the Iranian people leading the way.
• 21:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think we saw from the massacres that there's no way to combat this regime because of their willingness to use military force on their own people, right?
• 21:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that to leave the Iranian people in this vulnerable state and I think about the world sort of letting Ukraine happen.
• 21:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think about the world sort of not, like they might let Taiwan happen.
• 21:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think about watching what's gone on here, top of the year, and there was no responsibility to protect and acted by the United Nations, right?
• 21:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's just like, there was, it almost act, in fact, they're, they're like, they've even acknowledged it, but it happened.
• 22:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, to me, I think it sends the wrong message.
• 22:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think it sends a real fracture through the Iranian diaspora and the Iranian people.
• 22:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think the Iranian people really did expect that if America wasn't a start this, they would finish it.
• 22:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so sure, if they're going to have a secret strategy and, you know, all of these things, I think that the current administration has lost a ton of credibility, both for Republicans, Democrats, Iranians, you know, everyone who's sort of impacted by this because they started something that's assuming they don't know how to finish.
• 22:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when you think about the Islamic Republic now realizing that they can control the world through the straight-of-war moves, I mean,
• 22:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like things on it, you know, this is no, it's sending the wrong message.
• 22:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: It would it certainly would.
• 22:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And again, we don't know what's going to come out of this weekend.
• 22:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And again, we're recording this early folks on a Friday afternoon.
• 22:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, before that Monday, but episode, but now I share your
• 23:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: one thing that's very like like it would be very difficult to respect any deal this administration makes without including human rights issues around it, right?
• 23:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't hear them demanding a stop to execution.
• 23:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't hear them demanding a release to political prisoners.
• 23:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't hear them demanding the internet on.
• 23:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't hear them demanding supportive NGOs that are providing resources on the ground to people who are starving, need money, have medical care still from January.
• 23:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: So when the human rights issue is so void of this deal, it doesn't give me confidence to believe that the administration is prioritizing people over politics in this moment.
• 23:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: OK, well, we're going to have to wait and see.
• 23:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I got one more question for you.
• 23:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned internet, you mentioned Taiwan.
• 23:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's got me thinking I've been doing a lot of reading lately on AI, artificial intelligence.
• 23:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of what I'm reading right now, especially is it relates to the defense space.
• 24:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of people talking about how the machines are going to take over and they're going to, you know, we're going to have autonomous weapons where RRI is going to be fighting with China's AI and you're going to have these sort of Cuban missile crises without people.
• 24:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it all sounds pretty scary.
• 24:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I've read some of what you've said and written, you're an AI optimist.
• 24:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So give me something I could hold on to or we can close this out and
• 24:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think when you think about the
• 24:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: the marketization of the internet or mobile and how many geographically challenged communities and people sort of had access to education and commerce and business and education.
• 24:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have to see that these tools as much as there's a risk to how they might be used for in ways that are not healthy and productive to the world.
• 24:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are many ways in which they will be.
• 25:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: go to the doctor, get an appointment at the doctor, but they know something is wrong with them, maybe they have their blood work, maybe they have diagnosis, they need to read about it, they need to learn about it.
• 25:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: This becomes this transformational opportunity where people get to take some control and agency over themselves as it relates to their own well-being, their own future education, research,
• 25:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think what this does and I think what will be interesting and also very complicated is that there will be a world where like getting access to information, data, intelligence, what worries me more than the technology is how economically inclusive that technology might be to people.
• 25:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: It will worry me very much if only the top, you know, 1% of the world have access to something like mythos from, you know, anthropic.
• 25:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to see that there's a world whether the teacher or student that everyone has equal access to this technology because it should be for the advancement of civil society.
• 26:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so to me, it's less about
• 26:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: the dangers of the tool itself, and it's more about the distribution and access of the tool, because I think if people have access to it, I think you could see a really rich world of education and entrepreneurship move forward.
• 26:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: But of course, there's going to be risk.
• 26:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of environmental concerns that need to be addressed.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of socio-economic concerns that need to be addressed.
• 26:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so,
• 26:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we're still very early days in all of this, but I think the media is in a little bit of this 1999 situation where they thought the like ATMs were named and explode in like 2000, you know?
• 26:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Which is like AI is no different than like it's just the sort of like evolution of like the internet, right?
• 26:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like the internet and there was like block chain and there was like social and now we've like moved into like super intelligence and and a gigantic intelligence
• 26:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: So this was always sort of where it all goes.
• 26:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The question is, how is it governed?
• 26:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: How is it distributed?
• 26:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And do people have equal access to it?
• 27:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will be more concerned with who has access and equal access because what I don't want is people who need access to not have access.
• 27:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so to me, I want to see all of these companies actually have a really strong distribution partnership with schools and education and medical so that, again,
• 27:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: what worries me is the people who need access to the technology the most don't have it yeah i mean i think that and guardrails healthy guardrails i hope you're right about all the things that a.i.s going to bring us i think there's you know obviously we're learning about it as it develops which is insane we're going to be doing more of that here on this program folks i'm sure in the coming weeks and months ahead but in the meantime moj mohdara thank you so much telling you today on the f.d.b.r.
• 27:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: all right interesting voice there you don't hear that kind of stuff too often all right it's time to get on with your Monday people but don't lose your thirst for knowledge head on over to our website to read more that'sftd.org for the uninitiated and a semi regular reminder here that most social media is brain rot but not our social media it's sharp and smart and it makes you think so scroll on people and
• 28:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you have a shackle or two to spare, you can head on over to fdd.org slash and best to make a highly appreciated tax deductible donation.
• 28:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, here's the fun part.
• 28:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're back at it again in less than 48 hours.
• 28:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know you can't wait.
• 28:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Neither can I see Wednesday until then I'm Jonathan Shanzer signing off for FDD.