Latest / Gunther Fehlinger Podcast / Khaled Hassan: Why Europe Is Failing on Iran & Ukraine

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Khaled Hassan: Why Europe Is Failing on Iran & Ukraine · Gunther Fehlinger Podcast

0:01
Very good. Thanks a lot, everybody.
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This is going to failing. We are here at the Voice of the
0:06
Free World here from Vienna. We are discussing the big issues
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of our time and our podcast is developing very good because we
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have always very interesting guests.
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Yeah. And today I'm very happy to
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announce that Khalid Hassan from the United Kingdom is here with
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us and he is very active on ICS. He has over 100,000 followers
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and is one of the leading voices for freedom in the United
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Kingdom and has very clear opinions about what Europe
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should do now at this decisive moment when the war of
0:36
liberation is ongoing, the Americans and Israelis are alone
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and the Europeans are again at the sidelines.
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And we have the European Council summit.
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And you became very famous with your tweet yesterday, Galette.
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We are very interesting in your positions, but please introduce
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yourself first because we in the European continent want to know
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your background, your opinions and we are very happy that you
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are here with us to discuss. Galette, the floor is yours.
1:03
Yes, absolutely. Thank you for having me.
1:05
So my name is Khaled Hassan. I'm an Egyptian.
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I grew up in Egypt and I'm a researcher, so I focus on
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national security and foreign policy, specifically focusing on
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the Middle East. You know, the Middle East has
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been, you know, everything in my life basically.
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And I, I, I think I would say, you know, as someone who's
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Jewish, I am Jewish. I converted to Judaism.
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And also I am British and my father-in-law was German.
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So my children are born to an English mom, you know, British
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English mom, and they also have German nationality from their
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granddads. So we're very much part of
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Europe and it's. A really amazing mixture of
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everything European. I'm so happy, but it's amazing.
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It's. Please continue introduce
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yourself. It's very sad for me, which is
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why, you know, I have, I have the German side of the family.
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And, you know, Germany was, you know, known for, you know,
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being, you know, pragmatic, reliable and all that stuff.
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You know, especially when it comes to Israel, especially when
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it comes to, you know, taking action where it matters, really.
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And I'm, I'm really sad to say that, you know, Europe, as you
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said, has been sidelined by its own leaders.
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They decided that, you know, we are insignificant and
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irrelevant. And I don't know why they've
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made this decision. It doesn't make any sense to me
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because I think there are things that are worth fighting for.
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So I believe that we have to fight for Ukraine because Russia
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is engaged in a war of aggression not only against
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Ukraine but against us in the UK.
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They have sent spies to murder people on British soil.
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They have sent, you know, the submarines to cause trouble to
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our own infrastructure. And we have our own military
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leaders saying this and our own intelligence leaders saying
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this. But now you see that, you know,
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it's fascinating because Russia uses Iranian drones.
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So even that reason itself is enough for me for Europe to
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actually get involved in liberating Iran.
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You know, it's a very clear equation here.
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But for some reason, Europe has decided that they don't fight
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for values, they don't fight for freedom, They don't fight even
3:24
for pragmatic reasons. When, when America says to us,
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can you send mine minesweepers to clear the Strait of Hormuz of
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the mines, you know, so we can open international trade again,
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which would ease the pressure on us here, you know, because of
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the prices of oil and all that stuff.
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And Europe still chooses to be insignificant.
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So it doesn't make any sense to me.
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And it's really tragic. And I think Europeans will
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regret this decision. Aled, tell me a bit about why
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you think this Iran liberation war is justified.
3:57
What's your moral case for this liberation war?
4:00
Well, I mean, if you look at how, how, how the Ayatollah's
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regime in Iran has acted, it's for a number of reasons #1
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domestically they have killed over 30,000 people of their own.
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You know, a regime that's capable killing that many of its
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own in a few days, you know, 30,000 people in a few days.
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This is a massacre. This is a modern day massacre.
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And in my view, no one should just watch this and say, sorry,
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there's not much we can do, especially now that Americans
4:29
are asking Europe for only two things to get involved in, you
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know, allowing allowing the Americans to use European
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airspace and bases and, you know, assets and also getting
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involved in the clearing of the Strait of Hormuz, which is an
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internationally significant water passageway.
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So it's it's the war is justified because in many
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reasons, as I said, also there is the Russia reason which is,
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you know, they are engaged using Iranian drones against our US
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actually and against our allies. So I don't the question should
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be why shouldn't you get involved?
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I don't see one reason why you shouldn't get involved.
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Let's talk first about the United Kingdom, because you're
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based in the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom was always
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with the Americans, yes, in the First World War, in the Second
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World War, in the Cold War, in the liberation war of Bosnia and
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Kosovo, in the 90s, in the questions of Afghanistan, Iraq,
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Libya. You know, the United Kingdom is
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probably the best ally of the United States ever in history
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now at this very decisive moment.
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And the leadership of the United Kingdom.
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And so it seems to as the public backing is somewhere on the
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sidelines and even has been then very lately offering to 1
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aircraft carrier to be sent in the East Mediterranean.
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And Trump said so late, we don't need it.
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And when it comes to a very normal thing which the whole
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British Empire, the whole British history is built about,
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that's the freedom of the Seas. Yeah, yes.
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And then even in that small request and the United Kingdom
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is missing in action. What's wrong in the United
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Kingdom today? There are two things that are
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wrong with the United Kingdom today.
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One, we have leaders who have never been personally
6:20
challenged. So as someone like me who lived
6:23
in Egypt, who actually faced dictators, who actually, you
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know, went to protests, you know, believed in something, you
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know, I found my life at risk on many occasions.
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And you have to stand for your values.
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When I look at someone like our Prime Minister now, he stands
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for nothing. What's what's the most
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challenging point in his life? If you look at Churchill,
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Churchill was, you know, in the army.
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He was an officer in the army. There were many occasions when
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his life was at risk. This man, you know, has been
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through challenging times and challenging times make serious
6:56
leaders serious and capable and strong leaders.
6:59
Our leaders for generations now have been leaders who have
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achieved nothing in, in their personal lives, you know, other
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than business maybe, or, you know, being a bit, you know,
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controversial, you know, selling a few books, you know, but
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they've, they've actually this time for nothing.
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So that's the main challenge. We have a serious issue when it
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comes to the quality of our leaders today.
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That's a very, very serious issue.
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And you will see this, you know, because when they're tested,
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when they're faced with making a difficult decision, no one
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makes, you know, the decision of let's send a nation to war
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easily because you know, you will get body bags.
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You know, you will get, you know, parents that you have to
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call and say your your child died in this war.
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It's a very difficult decision. But they can't make this
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decision, even if it's actually in our own benefit.
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So for me, it feels like, you know, you're dealing with a
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child who refuses to take medicine because that medicine
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doesn't taste very nice, although it's actually good for
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them. That's precisely what we're
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dealing with here. The second issue is we have been
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captured. This country has been captured
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by basically foreign influence. Foreign influence most
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specifically, it comes from the Muslim vote.
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We have a very serious issue with the Muslim vote.
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So, you know, you will see the Prime Minister Kistama in his
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address during the Fr that they held for Muslims in parliament,
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he said, oh, we're not involved in the Iran war.
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And I promise you we're not getting involved in the Iran
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war. And, you know, the Muslims who
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were in attendance were clapping for him and they were applauding
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and they were very pleased with him.
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This is what he's trying to do. He's trying to win the Muslim
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vote by saying, look, I'm not fighting for Israel.
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I'm not fighting with America. I'm not fighting a Muslim
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country, basically. So that's what he's hoping for.
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And again, we're going to pay a very serious price for this.
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But in Austria, for example, I'm very much involved in the
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Iranian protests here for Free Iran.
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And these are also Muslims. Most of the people in Iran are
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obviously Muslims, and so they are calling for assistance.
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They want their country to be free, and they are calling for
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American and Israeli intervention the whole time
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since the January massacre. Is it not the same as well in
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the United Kingdom that the Iranians really want this
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intervention? There is actually a big
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difference when it comes to Iran and other Muslim countries
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because Iran, if you look at it, it does not accept political
9:29
Islam. It does not accept, you know,
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this, this Arabization of Iran, you know, when Iran was
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basically occupied by the Ayatollah's regime, because
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that's what happened. You know, they went over and
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they started their own militias to basically suppress everyone,
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no political opposition. You will find that the Iranians
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have their own Iranian values. They like their language.
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They don't really strongly associate with the Palestinians.
9:55
You know, they don't associate with Pan Arabism and Nasser and
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all that stuff. So even the Muslims from Iran
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who actually, you know, we're seeing studies now saying that
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most Iranians are not really Muslim like other Muslim
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countries. They're more secular.
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They're more, you know, not less involved in political Islam.
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So that's one aspect. But the other aspect is even
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Muslim countries are being attacked now by Iran.
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The problem we have in the UK is that we have a very extremist
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version of, you know, what a Muslim community does.
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We have a really serious issue because even Saudi Arabia, even
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the UE, you would not find that strong support.
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You know, this as we have here in the UK from the Muslim
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community and it's fascinating. I can't even, you know, we've
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allowed the most extremist voices in Britain's Muslim
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community to be the mainstream of the Muslim community here in
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Britain. And that's a very dangerous
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development. You basically say that the
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Labour Party's governance is hijacked by extreme form of
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Islamist ideology. Yes, exactly.
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That's that's that's precisely the point.
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And you know, you've seen this, we've seen this from, you know,
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a whistle blower last week, someone who's actually almost an
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ambassador level in in the Foreign Office in Britain.
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He said this explicitly. He said our foreign policy now
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is hijacked by Islamists. That's a disaster for the United
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Kingdom. And the free world.
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For everybody in the world, yes, yeah, very boring development in
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the UK. Let me ask you now about your
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opinions about the European Union because we had big hopes
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in Chancellor Metz. He was in the 12th day wars last
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year. He was calling, applauding
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basically Israel and the United States for doing the.
11:47
He called it dirty work to punish the Iranian terror regime
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for the aggression and also for the nuclear driven project.
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And in the beginning of 2026, he was also very much in favor of
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regime change. But seemingly he has shifted his
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position now. And what's your expectation of
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today's EU council meeting? Do you think that Europe will
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swing in line for liberation of Iran or do you think we are ever
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more drifting away from that and we are ever moving more to
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irrelevance? I think we are moving into
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relevance, sadly, because if you look at Germany, Chancellor Merz
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was, was, you know, he had a very, very valid point actually.
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He said that, you know, you cannot talk to me about
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international law, basically when it comes to this war, when
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you have the Ayatollah's regime who do not comply with
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international law in any way, shape or form.
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So it's almost like you're tying my hand.
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You're telling me you cannot attack them because it's against
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international law? But they don't respect
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international law. So it's, it's a very, you know,
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unfair position to be in. And I really admired him for
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making this point because it's a very valid point.
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But I think there is a serious issue in, in Europe where you
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see kissed armor going one way. And alongside him, you know, the
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French are also doing, you know, something similar.
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So that leaves Germany, you know, almost, you know, having
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to do this on its own, not within Europe.
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And that creates a problem. So obviously, you know, it's
13:17
it's with the weight of, you know, the economic cost of the
13:20
war. It will be very difficult, I
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think, for the Germans to say, OK, we're breaking away from the
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British and the French, and we're going to get involved with
13:29
the Americans and the Israelis. And again, you know, you're
13:32
going to have foreign influence increasing.
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You're going to have, you know, the Muslim vote again, the
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Islamist vote increasing in Europe, and that will make it
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very hard for many European countries.
13:43
Actually, it's not mostly European countries to take
13:46
action that is even good for them when they have to.
13:51
Colette, let me ask you about the Spanish Prime Minister.
13:54
He has a very difficult, complicated role in this whole
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game. He is also the president of the
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Socialist International, and he is somehow the cheerleader of
14:04
the pieces of the pacifists and of the irrelevance of he calls
14:10
himself the head of the peace camp.
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But in reality, he has done very little for Ukraine, and he is
14:16
now doing nothing for the freedom of Iran.
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He's a very deeply problematic figure.
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What is your opinion about him? I think he's actually one of the
14:24
most dangerous men in Europe in many, many years if you look at
14:28
what he's done. So I was involved in a case
14:30
where my research, working with the former, with the previous UK
14:36
government, we managed to deport one of the most prominent Muslim
14:39
Brotherhood figures from the UK. And after this man was deported
14:44
from the UK, he went to Spain. So I wrote to a few contacts in
14:48
Spain, you know, diplomatic and security contacts, and they said
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you now have a terrorist in Spain, can he do something about
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this? And I never received a response.
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No one even cares. So Spain is in a position now
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where it is, I believe, welcoming terrorists under this
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this man's leadership. I really despise him, I have to
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admit. And he's also, you know, the
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whole sort of regularization of almost half a million illegal
15:19
immigrants who are now going to be almost fast tracked into
15:24
citizenship in Spain. What does this do to a country?
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This is, this is suicide because you're not only saying if you
15:31
come here illegally, we're going to give you legal status and
15:35
citizenship, but you're also going to be part of Europe.
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You know, you're also going to be able to travel freely.
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Once you have a Spanish passport, you're going to be
15:44
able to travel, you know, move to the UK, go elsewhere.
15:48
And he's doing things because I think he's extremely dogmatic.
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He's extremely, I actually believe he's an extremist to be
15:56
honest. You know everything that he's
15:58
doing and I think he is one of the clearest indications of
16:03
where Europe is heading. Today we have the European
16:07
Council, the coming 2 days, and decisions will be made.
16:10
But it seems to be that Europeans are no longer so
16:14
interested in the human rights of Iran or the export of
16:18
Islamist terror, but they're only interested in the oil
16:21
price. It's like a passive flash of the
16:23
world because prior to the IT was always our position that we
16:27
are the defenders of global human rights, and it's the
16:30
Americans who are waging war for oil.
16:33
That is the perception of many of the leftovers in history of
16:36
our difference with America. But now the Americans are doing
16:40
a humanitarian intervention basically as a response to the
16:44
8th of January. They are waging this war and
16:46
helping the Iranians to find freedom at huge cost, but the
16:50
Europeans are only crying for cheaper oil.
16:55
Is that not very regrettable? It is, it is, it's actually,
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it's, it's tragic because when you look at not only, you know,
17:04
this aspect, but you look at how Europe has been funding
17:07
dictators for a very long time now.
17:10
You know, we used to have Europe that would say to dictators in
17:14
the Middle East, you're not going to get funding from Europe
17:18
if you continue to suppress your political opposition.
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Now, Europe doesn't care about this.
17:23
And I don't want to name specific leaders in the Middle
17:26
East, but we're talking about very dangerous leaders, leaders
17:30
who put their own people in prison just for expressing a
17:34
political view. And we see European leaders not
17:38
only shaking hands with them, but actually giving them money
17:42
because Europeans now are terrified of the concept of,
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well, what would happen if this, you know, the dictatorship
17:49
collapses, Then we might get some refugees from this country.
17:53
So, you know, we'd rather actually keep this dictator in
17:55
place. But what that means is you're
18:00
not still, you know, actually securing your borders.
18:03
That's one, one aspect, because you still will get refugees from
18:07
these dictatorships. And the other thing is you are
18:10
being taken hostage. You know, you're being
18:13
blackmailed by those dictators who tell you if you try anything
18:17
against me, I'm just going to let people engage in illegal
18:21
immigration and that's going to cause you issues.
18:23
So they're blackmailing Europe and Europe is doing nothing.
18:26
We're just playing along, basically.
18:29
But there's also the President of Finland, Mr. Stoop, who has
18:33
made some proposal to the American president now on his
18:36
visit, and that we should build a coalition with America and
18:40
Europe, help America and Israel to liberate Iran, while America
18:44
should help Europe to kick Russia out of Crimea and
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Ukraine. What's your opinion about this
18:51
proposal? I think that's a very fair, you
18:55
know, suggestion. It's a very reasonable
18:56
suggestion. And that's what I said in my
18:58
tweet. You know, I said, look, if you
19:00
if you say the Iran war is not my war, the Americans can say,
19:04
well, you know, the Ukraine war is not my war.
19:06
You know, it's thousands of miles away from me.
19:09
Why should I, why should I get involved?
19:11
You know, and, and people don't really understand this.
19:14
But mostly I think that's because we have a fundamental
19:18
issue here that's really concerning.
19:20
Our society is controlled by left wing extremists mainly.
19:24
Well, you know, we have seen the BBC doctrine and manipulating
19:29
footage for President Trump. And then they apologized about
19:32
this. And, you know, that's that's an
19:34
issue that is actually widespread.
19:36
It's commonplace because we believe, you know, no one, for
19:39
example, would credit President Trump for actually saying to
19:43
NATO that you need to invest more.
19:45
You know, you need to, you know, every country needs to invest
19:47
more in NATO. No one gives him the credit for
19:49
this. And everyone just blames him and
19:51
saying, you know, you're going to break up NATO and all that
19:54
stuff. So I think we need a balanced
19:56
view that says the transatlantic alliance between Europe and
20:01
America. Is absolutely crucial for our
20:04
survival. It's not just, you know, it's
20:06
our security and survival. What's going wrong in the BBC?
20:11
Because in Austria we have also some Austrian style BBC publicly
20:15
funded TV and they are basically allowing themselves to be turned
20:20
into the spokesperson of the Ayatollah regime or basically of
20:24
the Russian government. It's unbelievable, dominated by
20:27
left wing unilateral kind of perspectives and you're really
20:32
wondering what reality they live.
20:34
Is it as bad as in Austria as well In the BBC in the UKI?
20:38
Think actually the BBC started this in a way because if you
20:42
look at Canada, you're going to see, you know, the equivalent of
20:45
the BBC almost doing the same thing.
20:47
If you look at across Europe, you're going to find in Sweden,
20:50
because the same issue, you know, everywhere there is almost
20:53
an equivalent of the BBC. But the BBC is so influential
20:57
and it was one of the very first platforms to, you know, sort of
21:01
mainstream this very leftist view.
21:05
And it you'll find that they argue, they make arguments that
21:09
are unreasonable, irrational, but because they hold so much
21:14
power, no one who makes a counter argument is even allowed
21:18
to actually air these counter arguments.
21:20
So you're going to find that, you know, if you look at the
21:22
BBC, for example, I was involved in the most comprehensive report
21:27
ever written about the BBC and this, you know, we looked at BBC
21:32
Arabic. You're going to find, for
21:33
example, that BBC Arabic, the overwhelming majority of
21:37
Palestinians from Gaza that BBC Arabic platformed were actually
21:42
linked to terrorist groups. So BBC Arabic would tell you, we
21:47
now have this guy from Gaza. He's a doctor or he's a lawyer
21:50
or he's an activist. But once you actually dig a
21:54
little deeper on him, you find out that he's officially part of
21:58
Hamas or his family are part of Hamas, which obviously means
22:02
he's not, you know, impartial. So we have we are facing a
22:07
serious disaster because they shape public opinion.
22:13
According to this public TV's, the war in Iran is going very
22:17
bad and Trump has no strategy, Netanyahu doesn't know what he's
22:22
doing and we are going into a full disaster in Iran.
22:26
What's your opinion? Actually, what's your
22:28
perspective? We have now since 28th of
22:31
February, this liberation war. What's your perspective?
22:34
How much objectives have been achieved, how stable is the
22:39
Iranian terrorist regime still, and how long will this war
22:42
continue until the regime will be changed?
22:46
I think this is 1 so far. This is one of the most
22:49
impressive wars I have ever seen.
22:52
I think this is one of the most impressive wars in history.
22:55
If you look at how many fighter jets, if you look at how many
22:59
people were involved from the Israeli side and the American
23:02
side, and you look at the casualties on the American side,
23:05
so far we know of almost 7 people who were being who have
23:08
been killed, 7 servicemen and women on the American side.
23:13
You're talking about thousands. You're talking about the entire
23:17
regime in Tehran eliminated within the first couple of
23:20
hours. That's unprecedented.
23:22
We're talking about miracles. This is, you know, this is that
23:26
we actually here in Europe, people saying you don't have a
23:28
strategy. Do you think if they did not
23:30
have a strategy, if they did not have very solid intelligence,
23:34
they would have been able to kill the entire regime in the
23:38
very first couple of hours? The problem is you then talk to
23:41
people like Keir Starmer, who said, you know, it doesn't seem
23:44
like America has a strategy. Well, what is his strategy in
23:47
Ukraine? I am very in favor of supporting
23:51
Ukraine, but all we have been doing is send Ukraine money and
23:56
watch the war go on and on and on.
23:58
They say the Americans don't have an exit strategy for the
24:01
war in Iran. Well, what is Europe's exit
24:05
strategy for the war in Ukraine? What's the exit strategy?
24:09
When does this war end? Because, you know, we see people
24:12
asking, when does the Iran war end?
24:14
Well, when does the Ukraine war end?
24:17
It's four years and ongoing and the British have made a
24:20
coalition of the billing that in case the war is over, they will
24:24
secure the peace, which is a extremely generous and
24:27
courageous offer. After they have the boys over,
24:31
then the British will come. I really cannot understand this
24:34
irony of the British position and the European position
24:37
because logically would be to really help now to win the war
24:41
and to drive the Russians out of Crimea.
24:44
Yes, that would be the courageous and normal position
24:47
which European power should have at this tragedy of the Russian
24:52
invasion against Ukraine. Yes, it's sorry.
24:56
Go on. Please here.
24:57
No, no, just you want to, we can continue shortly for Ukraine.
25:01
But if I have you already on this interview, I would like to
25:04
see a little bit also discuss some specific Arab governments,
25:08
if that's interesting for you. But I want to thank you very
25:11
much for your support for Ukraine.
25:13
But if we can, because you are very knowledgeable, I would like
25:17
to ask you also about Egypt, because you're from Egypt and
25:20
you were protesting in the times of the revolution.
25:24
I understand and now we have a military dictatorship, but Egypt
25:28
is trying to join a brick, so it's a bit aligned to bricks.
25:33
And I'm not so happy because we are funding Egypt with many,
25:36
many 1,000,000 billions actually, and the policy result
25:41
is not so really fantastic. Yes.
25:43
What's your opinion? Yes, the challenge is, and this
25:46
is, again, this is actually an American failure.
25:49
Before it was a European failure, to be very honest,
25:52
because the Americans have been giving Egypt a lot of money, you
25:56
know, because they're quite afraid of Egypt collapsing
25:59
because, you know, it's 120 million people.
26:02
So it's a, it's a very big country.
26:05
And also because Egypt is the cornerstone of Arab Israeli
26:09
peace, you know, because Egypt was the first country to have a
26:12
peace treaty with Israel. So when you look at this, you
26:17
see that they have been allowing Egypt to get away with many
26:21
things, including getting close to China.
26:24
Egypt was the very first country to actually have military drills
26:28
with the Chinese army in North Africa.
26:31
They invited them to come to North Africa despite the very
26:36
serious concerns about intelligence.
26:38
They were collecting intelligence from American
26:40
military in the Middle East. You know, this was a very
26:44
serious issue. But again, I believe that the
26:48
Egyptian government is actually being very clever.
26:52
They blackmailed the Europeans. They blackmailed the Americans.
26:56
And because we are so scared and terrified of any confrontation,
27:01
we're not doing much. We're not saying hold on a
27:03
moment, you can't do this, otherwise you're not going to
27:06
get any money from us. We don't really do this.
27:09
We try to, you know, work around it.
27:11
We try to talk to them. We try to do all that stuff and
27:14
it's not working. It's just not working.
27:17
The problem I believe in the Middle East is, again, Europeans
27:23
have been extremely apologetic about having any influence in
27:27
the Middle East because they believe, you know, you now have
27:30
the whole concept about colonization and all that stuff.
27:32
And that's why Europe is withdrawing from the Middle
27:35
East. They don't want to be accused of
27:38
colonization or of, you know, starting wars or whatever.
27:41
But what that means is that we end up enabling dictators in the
27:46
Middle East. That was my question about
27:50
various governments in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab
27:55
Emirates, Kuwait. We have liberated Kuwait in 91.
28:00
We are generally, I see Saudi Arabia as a key ally of the West
28:04
and of Europe and of America. But you know, they have been not
28:08
so forthcoming in the last decade in terms of policy.
28:11
Now there is a deliberation war and they are getting hit
28:14
actually by Iran. What's the perception in these
28:18
countries? Do they want to be more friendly
28:21
to us in the future or do they really see that we are basically
28:26
trying to help, especially the Americans?
28:29
What's the public opinion and what is your perception on the
28:32
leadership of the Arab states in the Gulf now during the war of
28:36
liberation? I want to be very honest and say
28:39
that one of, well, pretty much the only country that I fully
28:43
trust is the UE. The UE is very serious.
28:48
It's it has serious values. So when the UE made its peace
28:53
with Israel, they actually want peace.
28:55
They actually want friendship. They want tolerance.
28:58
They want, you know, to see Muslims and Jews actually
29:03
engaging together and working together.
29:05
That's very serious. You know, this needs to be said.
29:08
Other countries have been playing games with us.
29:11
Let's put it this way. So the Saudis, they have been
29:14
playing games with us, you know, and, and, and they don't really
29:17
have a very clear strategy. They try to manipulate us and
29:21
they almost succeed most of the time with doing this.
29:25
But they have a very, almost every other country that I think
29:28
this is the very core of the issue.
29:30
They don't believe in the values we believe, but they try to deal
29:35
with us in a transactional way. Like I'm going to give you
29:39
money, you're going to sell me some planes and fighter jets and
29:42
whatever. And everyone is going to be
29:43
happy with this. That's not good enough.
29:46
It just isn't good enough because the end up, you know,
29:49
again, like I said, playing us again is the Chinese.
29:54
So if you say if America says no, we're not going to give you,
29:57
you know, the fighter jets that you want, unless you normalize
30:00
relations with it with Israel, then the Saudis say, OK, we're
30:04
going to go to the Chinese. So that's fundamentally the main
30:07
issue. I think Europe needs to have a
30:09
clear strategy and America needs to have a clear strategy, and
30:13
these strategies need to be based on our Judeo-christian
30:16
humanitarian human rights and all of the European values we
30:20
appreciate. What do you think about the role
30:24
of Qatar? I think Qatar is actually
30:29
portrayed as something that is far more dangerous than it
30:32
actually is. You know, I don't think Qatar is
30:35
as dangerous as Turkey, for example.
30:38
Qatar is still dangerous because it has a very, very effective
30:44
propaganda machine. It has a very Islamist
30:46
propaganda machine. But again, I think Qatar is much
30:51
easier to deal with than Turkey, than Egypt, than others in the
30:55
region. So my focus should be on the
30:58
countries that really represent, you know, a clear threat to the
31:02
European and Western way of life.
31:05
And after this, I think Qatar is also, Qatar is actually quite
31:09
reasonable, you know, when it comes to dealing with the
31:11
Qataris, they're far, far more reasonable.
31:13
And this is something that a lot of people don't see.
31:15
Yes, you see, you know, Al Jazeera and all that stuff.
31:18
But even if you look at Al Jazeera, you're going to find
31:20
that the people who run Al Jazeera are mostly Egyptian.
31:27
So the people who make the programs and all that stuff,
31:29
they're mostly Egyptian because Egyptians have been very
31:32
effective and, you know, they're the first ones to start, you
31:35
know, news and, and, and, and media and propaganda machines
31:39
across the Arab world. When it comes to the European
31:43
Union, our most effective foreign policy tools is not
31:46
militarily, but it's our free trade agreements.
31:49
And we since decades, we are negotiating with the Gulf
31:52
Cooperation Council to conclude the free trade agreement.
31:55
We should have concluded it many years ago, but it's still not
31:58
done, unfortunately. Do you think it is a good idea?
32:01
Do you think that the Gulf is a potential?
32:03
The School Cooperation Council is a potential good ally for the
32:08
European Union, a trade partner and also a strategic partner in
32:11
the future. Yes, I think they are.
32:14
You know, generally, overall, I think it's good for Europeans,
32:17
it's good for, you know, the people of Austria, the people
32:20
of, of, of France, Germany. It is actually good for us.
32:24
It's good for us economically. It's good for us because we also
32:27
need to have influence. So when you have a trade
32:29
agreement, you have influence with over the GCC and you can
32:33
actually get involved in building a serious and reliable
32:37
alliance. And I think, you know, again, we
32:39
have, in my view, we have to support the UE because the UE is
32:43
really leading all the efforts against extremism, against
32:47
terrorism in the Middle East. So I yes, absolutely, I think we
32:51
should strengthen this alliance. Call it.
32:54
I'm a long term critic towards OPEC, which is the organization
32:57
based in Vienna. And I always say that it should
33:00
leave Vienna because it's a cartel and it manipulates the
33:04
prices. And especially since they have
33:06
turned into this OPEC Plus, that means basically to have alliance
33:10
with Russia, Saudi Arabian, Russian alliance and the oil
33:14
markets. Yeah, I really don't like that
33:16
at all. What's your opinion?
33:17
Can we not come to an understanding that this OPEC way
33:22
of manipulating the global oil markets on behalf of Saudi
33:25
Arabia and Russia is really very bad for the West?
33:28
And there's a part of a realignment of Saudi Arabia and
33:31
the Gulf countries to at least reduce, basically end the
33:37
influence of Russia in OPEC or even dismantle OPEC and have a
33:41
real economic partnership with the Gulf countries on a level
33:45
which is serious on level of equality and not mutual
33:49
blackmailing. Well, it's actually very
33:53
interesting because when you look at this, I think it's very
33:57
comparable to, let's say you have milk in your house.
33:59
You know, you've got a few pints of milk, but you decide that
34:03
milk is not good for the environment.
34:05
So you take the milk that you have in your house and you throw
34:07
it away and then you go out and try to buy milk from someone
34:11
else. So don't complain when this, you
34:13
know, the person who's selling you the milk sets the price.
34:16
In the UK, we have decided no, no, no, because of net zero.
34:19
We're not going to, you know, do any drilling in the North Sea.
34:23
We're not going to get involved. We're not looking at our own
34:26
resources. We're not trying to have our own
34:29
resources. So we obviously leave ourselves
34:33
quite vulnerable to, you know, Saudi Arabia, which is mostly,
34:37
you know, the, the, the country that actually sets the price.
34:40
And then we blame them. I think this is very, you know,
34:42
this is very irrational if you ask me.
34:44
Obviously they want to make as much money as they can.
34:46
You know, this is the free market.
34:48
You know, it's, it's, it's how things work.
34:50
If you want to fight this, you know what, let's, let's, let's
34:53
fight it. Let's actually invest in our own
34:56
resources. When we do this, we'll be able
34:58
to set our own terms. We'll be able to say hold on a
35:00
moment, which is also, by the way, a very critical issue in
35:04
the Iran war because Iran has a lot of oil that goes to China
35:08
and goes to Russia. Well, to China mainly.
35:12
If we can free Iran and Iran can be a partner of Europe, why
35:17
can't we get our oil from Iran? You know, this is this is
35:22
another reason why the Iran war is very crucial.
35:26
You know, a free Iran that is pro the West, pro Israel is
35:29
going to be hugely influential in setting the price of oil
35:33
globally. This leads directly to the
35:36
Street of Hormuz back. You think that the Americans and
35:39
Europeans should have a joint naval expedition to make sure
35:44
that the Street of Hormuz is free one?
35:46
100% Look when, when Nasser of Egypt tried to block Israel's
35:51
access in 1956, you know, for in the Suez Canal and you know, the
35:57
Red Sea, France, Britain and Israel went to war because you
36:03
don't block, you know, one of the key routes for international
36:07
trade. You just don't, you know, this
36:09
means you are harming the average European.
36:12
You know, I am paying more for petrol now in the UK.
36:15
So I want my government to do something about this.
36:19
So we 100% have to because also it's it's part of our
36:22
international order. If anyone can do whatever they
36:25
want, if Iran can close the Strait of Hormuz, if Egypt can
36:29
close this the Suez Canal, then that leaves us, our own people
36:33
hostage being blackmailed by tyrants and dictators.
36:38
What's your opinion about this strike on Kag Island, which
36:42
happened a week ago, where the Americans have destroyed the
36:45
military appliances and bases of Iran's regime on this vital oil
36:50
terminal which is called Kag Island?
36:52
What's your opinion on that one and what should be the next
36:54
steps in relation to Kag Island? I think this was strategically
37:00
significant, and I think the Americans have, the Americans
37:03
and the Israelis have a very, very clear, detailed plan for
37:08
how to weaken this regime and basically pave the way for the
37:13
Iranians to take to the streets and liberate their own country.
37:17
So one of the main issues I have with this war is that we get a
37:20
lot of people who don't know these these details because
37:23
obviously this is a war. You know, these are national
37:26
security secrets and they tell you all, you know, this war is
37:30
not going well. There are things you and I and
37:33
others will never know because these are military secrets.
37:37
But the everything we see indicates that it's going very
37:41
well. I believe we should continue to
37:44
weaken the regime. That also means striking the
37:47
economic centers, you know, the places where they make money,
37:50
whether it's oil, resources or whatever it is.
37:53
We just have to do this to be able to weaken, weaken the
37:56
regime, because once the regime cannot pay the salaries for its
37:59
terrorists, once the regime cannot pay Hezbollah, once they
38:03
cannot pay the Houthis, then this regime truly and its
38:07
proxies across the region will collapse.
38:09
So my, my point is just trust the process, trust the
38:13
Americans, trust the Israelis. They know what they're doing.
38:17
There's Expeditionary ship of 2200 U.S.
38:21
Marines on the road to the Persian Gulf.
38:24
Would you agree and counsel towards whatever kind of
38:30
liberation of US ground troops, also naval troops, the Marines,
38:34
for example, to control the Kag Island or the Chesson Islands
38:38
and to have the access of the straits and the oil terminal to
38:42
be also under physical control of the US Army?
38:46
Yes, yes. I believe this is necessary for
38:48
us because I believe it it, it actually weakens China.
38:52
It weakens Russia. It means that pretty much the
38:56
only country that is leading the war on behalf of the free world
39:02
is liberating this part of the world, which means, you know,
39:05
we're all going to be better off.
39:07
The Middle East will be better off. the US will be better off.
39:10
Because once you control this, you know, crucial central part,
39:14
we're just stronger. You know, the West is actually
39:17
stronger. So if if the American, if the
39:20
Americans are only doing it and no one else wants to get
39:22
involved, the Europeans don't want to get involved.
39:24
I think it's completely fair for the Americans to do whatever
39:27
they want, you know, control it, access it, as long as they're,
39:31
you know, being fair and reasonable.
39:33
We also have in Germany and Italy still American bases like
39:37
Rammstein and Aviano since 80 years ago, since the liberation
39:41
of Europe from the Nazis. And so it's also legitimate, I
39:44
think for the Americans to have naval bases in the Persian Gulf
39:48
after they have liberated Iran. I think it's the European
39:52
president is logically here. Let's talk for post war Iran in
39:56
terms of the role of Reza Pahlavi.
40:00
He is the crystallising figure, the former Crown Prince of Iran,
40:05
who lived his whole life in in the United States.
40:09
And he is now absolutely celebrated figure by many
40:13
Iranians who live in America and Europe.
40:15
What do you think is his status and his role when it comes to
40:19
the liberation of Iran? And can he be the King of Iran,
40:24
the over the president of an interim administration?
40:29
Or should we Europeans and Americans recognise him as the
40:32
head of an exile government? What are the various policy
40:36
options you see and what would you recommend?
40:39
I think he is actually the most realistic alternative to the
40:45
Ayatollah's regime because there is precedence.
40:49
So, you know, we know that, you know, his father was actually
40:52
ruling Iran before all that happened.
40:55
His rule was not perfect. We obviously know this.
40:58
But it's almost the same as Egypt.
41:00
You know, we had the king in Egypt before Nasser.
41:03
And when the king was going to be toppled by Nasser and the
41:07
military in Egypt, the king actually sent messages to the
41:11
Americans and to the British and said, I need help.
41:15
You know, I'm being basically ousted from my post.
41:18
And the Americans and the British did nothing.
41:21
So Egypt turned into what it is today, which is not helpful to
41:25
us. It's not helpful to our
41:27
interests. And it's the same thing in Iran.
41:30
The Europeans actually helped the Ayatollah's regime, you
41:33
know, build this, this, this this regime, sadly.
41:37
And I think the key issue is a peaceful transition of power in
41:44
Iran. So, you know, we don't want Iran
41:47
to, you know, go into civil war or conflict internally after the
41:51
Ayatollahs regime collapses. What we want is a clear
41:56
alternative that takes Iran into, you know, makes it a
41:59
beautiful country that is pro the West, that is pro freedom.
42:03
And I think this man is very capable of being, you know, at
42:07
least a symbol of this. So we should support it, I
42:11
believe, yes. Ghaled in Iran is a very diverse
42:15
country with a lot of minorities.
42:17
Now everybody knows about the Kurds, but they're also the
42:19
Baluch, the Turkmens, the Asiaries and many other
42:23
minorities in this huge country of 93,000,000.
42:26
And we have in the United States and in Germany we have this
42:29
because Germany was built after the model of the United States
42:32
after the liberation in 45. We have so-called federalism.
42:37
I have proposed a federal free Iran.
42:40
But then everybody got a very big excited on Twitter against
42:43
me because, you know, I don't know, it's a bit complex,
42:47
complex topic. But in Germany and in Spain and
42:51
in many other countries, we have also diverse countries and we
42:54
made good results with federalism.
42:57
And that's why I'm talking. United States is maybe the best
43:00
example in the world. The Constitution, which is based
43:03
on 50 states united. So the question would be if
43:07
that's not a role model for Iran to look in order to deal with
43:10
the diversity and still have unity, what's your take on the
43:14
minorities, the role of the Kurds, the Baluch?
43:16
So what's your level of information, what you would like
43:19
to recommend to everybody who is watching here to do at the
43:24
moment? I think to be honest, this is
43:27
unprecedented. You know, what we're seeing with
43:29
Iran today, You know, freeing Iran like this is we have a lot
43:33
of questions. We don't know whether federalism
43:35
would work or not. It's definitely a valid
43:37
suggestion. You know, it's, it makes sense,
43:39
I think. But we don't know how the people
43:42
would feel about it. You know, domestically that's
43:44
the main problem because, you know, the ayatollahs regime
43:48
suppressed every minority and we don't really have a lot of
43:52
interactions to see, you know, what we can, what would work or
43:56
what wouldn't work. So I think in the initial stage,
43:59
you know, have this interim government and basically they
44:04
should decide. I think they they should decide,
44:06
you know, this is this is my view.
44:07
They should decide what happens. I think we should be very, very
44:11
careful of separatist movements. So some movements will want to
44:15
basically break up Iran to smaller states.
44:18
I think that would be very problematic because it would
44:21
actually indicate and feed into the conspiracy theory that a lot
44:26
of anti Semites have that Israel and America want to break up,
44:30
you know, Muslim countries into smaller countries that don't
44:33
have armies, don't have, you know, influence.
44:37
So I think we should be very careful about this.
44:40
But federalism is definitely a choice that I think needs to be
44:43
considered. Whatever it is.
44:45
You know, we're going to have to basically build something pretty
44:49
much, you know, not from scratch, thankfully, because we
44:52
have, you know, the model of the Shah before, before the
44:55
Ayatollah's regime. And that's why Reza Pahlavi is
44:58
very crucial in this stage, I think.
45:01
Many expect now that Reza Pahlavi will very soon call for
45:05
revolution after the regime's infrastructure of terror is
45:10
sufficiently degraded. Do you expect that to happen?
45:14
Do you expect it to work? And do you expect that the
45:17
people who sadly don't have many weapons in Iran, they will be
45:22
massacred, or that they will be successful in overturning the
45:26
institutions and imposing freedom on the Iranians?
45:32
I actually said months ago that I believe that he will be seen
45:37
in Tehran himself once it's it's actually safe enough to send
45:42
Reza Pahlavi into Tehran where he will be physically present.
45:48
That will be the moment that I think will really change the
45:51
dynamic of the war. Because once he's present in
45:54
Tehran, the people, the army and everyone else can rally behind
45:59
him and start building the new Iran.
46:03
And I think, yes, you know, it's, it is definitely going to
46:06
happen. I think at some point he's going
46:08
to call for a revolution. At some point he's going to be
46:12
present in Tehran to actually get this done.
46:15
Seriously, it's it could get nasty because, you know, there
46:19
are still people who are affiliated with Ayatollah's
46:21
regime or going to, you know, cause trouble.
46:24
But I think the people of Iran will have a very beautiful
46:28
moment when they actually see this happening.
46:30
And I think it's going to be, you know, overwhelmingly pro
46:34
Reza Pahlavi, to be honest. Yeah.
46:37
Can it now? It's about close to 3:00.
46:40
And the European Council leaders, all the leaders, Mr.
46:43
Sanchez, who you don't like, Mr. Metz, who you like, and Mrs.
46:47
Maloney, Mr. Macron, Mr. Stalker from Austria, and all the
46:51
leaders of Poland, Mr. Tusk. And they're all now assembling
46:55
in the Council building in Brussels.
46:57
And they will make decisions. They will discuss it and they
46:59
will make decisions. What's your goal?
47:02
What should the European leaders do at this moment in the terms
47:07
of Ukraine, Iran? What should be the rational and
47:11
the reasonable position of the European Union right now?
47:16
I think it should be very clearly an unequivocal support
47:19
for the US, unequivocal support for Israel, unequivocal support
47:24
for the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf who have been hit by
47:28
Iran. And they should make it
47:31
perfectly clear that if Baitola's regime do not seize
47:36
their operations in the Strait of Hormuz and open it up, that
47:39
Europe should get involved directly in the effort to
47:44
actually open the Strait. It's very simple.
47:47
It's not complicated. This should be, you know, 2
47:50
paragraphs. This is what we say should be
47:52
done, and this is what we're going to do to make sure it's
47:56
actually done. And I hope Mrs. Carlos has seen
47:59
our interview. Now, Khalid, I want to thank you
48:02
very much. I will share it widely on X and
48:04
on all the social medias and publish it on the podcast.
48:07
And I've found to thank you very much for your clarity, for your
48:11
brave statements, and also for your leadership in the public
48:15
space, for freedom, for the Iranians and for the support of
48:19
Ukraine. We need more leaders like you.
48:22
Carlet, thanks a lot that you came on the show.
48:25
Thank you very much for your time.
48:26
And likewise, I'd like to thank you.
48:27
It's, it's very great to have someone in Europe now with your
48:30
clarity and your leadership. So it's, it's, it's been a
48:33
pleasure. And I really do hope that
48:35
Europeans will listen to you because this is a moment where
48:39
we need a voice like yours to lead from the front.
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And I really, really believe we're needed in the Middle East.
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We should not be withdrawing. We should not be isolationist.
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We should get more involved and show actual courage in freeing
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the people of Iran. This is the moral mission which
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Europe has. This is what we shall do, and
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this is our clarity. I think we have learned it.
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We were also liberated in the Second World War, not by nice
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talking, but by American military intervention, which was
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Cold World War 2, and it was the right thing to do.
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And thanks to America for liberating us.
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And the Iranians will say one day the same.
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Absolutely. Thank.
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You for thanks a lot. All the best.
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Thanks for coming to this interview.
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Thank you it was very nice. I will send you the link.