Latest / Beyond the Summit with Amir Golshani / Trump’s Iran Strategy — The Real Game Behind It | Abteen Vaziri

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Trump’s Iran Strategy — The Real Game Behind It | Abteen Vaziri · Beyond the Summit with Amir Golshani

• Amir Golshani: Welcome back. He was born into a revolution, the son of an Imperial Air Force officer who faced a death sentence for his secular beliefs from a childhood of martial law in Tehran to the fall of the Berlin Wall and eventually to the halls of American finance and run for the U.S. Congress. His life is the embodiment of the struggle for liberty. Joining us today is Optin Vaziri, attorney, investment expert, and a voice for a new generation of Iranian Americans. Optin, welcome to Beyond the Summit. Abteen Vaziri: Amirjan, thank you so much for having me. It's an honor and a pleasure and thank you for reaching out. I'm looking forward to our discussion. Amir Golshani: Fantastic. You've called yourself a baby of the revolution, born during a literal lockdown. How does that chaotic entry into the world shape your threshold for risk and your definition for normalcy today? Abteen Vaziri: You know, that's a great question. You know, think generally people that are ⁓ of immigrants generally take, you know, are higher risk takers in life than normal people. ⁓ think a lot of times, you know, ⁓ actually funny enough, I play professional poker for five years. So, you a lot of times people think that, ⁓ you know, the people from Vietnam or people from Iran or people from India, China, that part of the world are generally more risk takers. But I think it's a fallacy because it's the risk taker part of that culture that decided to put everything aside and fly over the seas or in the old days by ship over the seas to discover the new world. So generally, you're a part of a more risk-taking part of the population that tends to travel. Now in the terms of Iranians, unfortunately, we weren't so lucky because we were so adventurous and we wanted to go in search of a better life or economic conditions. We were forced because if we were there, we would probably die. my dad was once, know, fighting with execution. As soon as he could legally try to figure out how to get out of the country, we got out in 89. Amir Golshani: Yeah, Thank you for sharing that. You arrived in Germany in 1989, is that right? Abteen Vaziri: That's right. was December 89. I remember I was in the middle of my final exams and I was always a good student. was that great, you know, in Iran. know, 19s and 20s, which is equates to, A's, A pluses and A's here in the States. But I remember I was in the middle final exams and my parents are like, I was just so worried. I was like, I'm going to fail this class. My parents are like, we never have to go back. never you're not going to fail these exams. We're leaving. just I couldn't understand that as a fifth grader that we're leaving. What if we come back? I failed my class. I can't fill my class. So it was was a struggle. And my my my sisters were much younger. So they were in kindergarten and one of it was a baby so they didn't understand kind of what I understood they understood a lot more and it was was difficult. Amir Golshani: All right. Right. You just got to Germany, as the Berlin Wall fell. You've equated that to your own liberation. Looking back, was it the wall falling or the regime you left behind that taught you more about the value of a border? Abteen Vaziri: ⁓ Definitely the fall in and kind of the influence of the Soviet Union on Germany much more than the symbolic wall actually falling. ⁓ wall is more the part of it, but the real thing that happened is the fall of Soviet Union, which follows shortly thereafter. Amir Golshani: You mentioned your father ⁓ who was sentenced to death for blasphemy, essentially for believing in a secular state. How has his courage to stand against theocracy influenced your decision to enter the secular battleground of American politics? Abteen Vaziri: You know, when I was running for office, a lot of people asked me what, know, what, why, why, you know, you've never been a politician. You didn't write for like local council or state Senate or, know, you just went straight to you as Congress. Why did you do that? And there were three things really that kind of encouraged me and You know, I was not in a good position around political office. I was just starting a new business and it was a chaotic time. But I just felt like I had this duty you know, ⁓ of And there are three things that really, you know, drove me. is my father passed away a couple of years ago. My father, you he was an Air Force officer. was very, you know, he the first one in his family to go to get a college degree, but he also had a master's degree. So I always had to match him at least get a master's degree. So just, just, just as a competition with my father. But I ended up getting a master's degree and a ⁓ judicial doctor's, JD degree. I know my dad, he was such a smart man, but he never really talked about all this stuff. All he cared about is getting his family to a safe place. And at the time, I didn't know that he was tortured. I didn't find out he was tortured until recently. just the things that he always instilled in me and ⁓ the that he had of the world. That was number one, that was really important for me to get involved in political process and pass that message along because I learned a lot from my father over the years. He told me a lot. Number two, I was just devastated when I saw the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I think Charlie Kirk being assassinated was, in my view, travesty because I didn't, know, lot of people on the left, kind of view him as a divisive figure. I never really viewed him as a divisive figure. I just thought that he was a figure that really gave a microphone even to his opposition. He wanted to start dialogue and he just thought that the only way we're gonna have a democracy is if we disagree, to respectfully disagree and have a conversation and talk it. And I just thought ⁓ people to try to silence someone like that, I just thought it was, ⁓ hurt me. ⁓ And it felt like for every Charlie Kirk that gets assassinated, there needs to be 100 new Charlie Kirk's. And if those 100 new Charlie Kirk's get assassinated, there needs to be a thousand more. And you can't silence people that are trying to do good for the world. And then the last one, the last reason of the three was I just thought it was a travesty that someone like Mamdani got elected to be mayor in New York. I spent nine years living in New York City. I love New York City. New York City is a second home to me. And, you know, I started, I left, really started leaving during COVID and finally left when my dad was sick in 2023, I've officially cut all ties with New York City. But I just thought that what he was preaching, the lies that he was preaching, I knew just matter of someone that understands law, someone understands government, someone that understands finances, that everything he's talking about cannot be accomplished. He's a phony. Now, there's two reasons that he would make that up. One, he just wants ⁓ fame power and ⁓ whatever. two, The opposite is something much more sinister. it really reminded me and gave me lot of PTSD from my childhood remembering the same stuff that we got fed by Ayatollah Khomeini. And Ayatollah Mamdani reminded me of a clone of Ayatollah Khomeini. know, people that may not know that Ayatollah Khomeini's family were part of the Muslim family in India that had been exiled. And then they ended up in Iran. Ayatollah Mamdani's family, same thing. Muslims in India that got kicked out went to went to Africa and he grew up in Africa. And what people don't understand is that if you read Dinesh D'Souza's book, the atrocities that were done under guise of Islam in India were actually a lot like something more than a million people were killed, they were imprisoned, they were forced to pay taxes. But it was this Islamic sect that came out of India that was so dangerous. And I said to myself that, you know, President Trump, I felt like he was going to make a difference. thought he was going to go for Venezuela. I thought he was going to do something in Iran in the next couple of years. I didn't think it was going to happen so immediately. thought Venezuela was going to be immediate. I thought Iran would follow a couple of years down the road. And my campaign manager, who was a good friend of mine from law school, a gentleman named Adam Majori, I went to him. said, listen, I think President Trump's going to do something about Venezuela. I think he's going to do something about Iran. And he's going to be gone in three years. And I know this is not a good time for me to run for political office, but we need to do this. I got to go serve. I got to pass this. message alone. We cannot, if I can get a platform and explain to the world why it's so dangerous to have people like ma'am Donnie in office, then I've succeeded. So we need to go do this. Amir Golshani: I love that. Something that, you know, better than most is that Iranians are arguably the most pro-American nation, at least the Middle East, if you don't say the whole world. Why does the Western media struggle to grasp the distinction between the Iranian people? Why does the Western media struggle to grasp the distinction between the Iranian people? and the regime. and the regime. It is much better than a couple of years back, but still, I don't know if it's intentional or it's ignorance. Abteen Vaziri: Listen, some of it is lack of, you know, being a student of history, but some of it is know, propaganda. There's a lot of powers that be that have a vested interest in these molestated power. And so it's a combination of a lot of propaganda, a lot of misinformation, and then couple that with lack of information. know, people to this day, I mean, how long have we been a war with Iraq since 2001? So this day, a lot of people just don't know the difference between Iran and Iraq. You know, it's just it's just basic basic education. But let me tell you, someone you know, I mentioned Charlie Kirk earlier, someone as intelligent as Carl Charlie Kirk, someone that's well read, somebody that understands history, even he got it wrong. Amir Golshani: All right. Abteen Vaziri: You know, he would go around and talk about, Iran was a, you know, democracy. you know, in 1953, the CIA started the coup d'etat and they removed this Mossad guy who was Democratic elected. And then they installed the shop. Well, that's complete fabrication. That's not how it worked. The father of the sh- Amir Golshani: He was appointed by the Shia. Abteen Vaziri: he was appointed by the Shah. The father of the Shah, Reza Shah, took power because we had this king under the Qajar dynasty who was living in Britain and hanging out with prostitutes and giving away property to England. And England was using him as a proxy to just keep stealing resources from Iran. And the Shah's father took power by force and kicked out the Qajar dynasty and started the Pahlavi dynasty. His son came to power when the British and the Russians decided to send Reza Shah into exile to the island of Gibraltar where he never saw his son again and a 22 year old named Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi became king way sooner than he expected but he did a fantastic job. He took the country for 37 years into modernity. You know I think at one point the GDP per capita of Iran 22-pole and then tripled again from there. you know, he ⁓ until his death, where, know, as soon as he was exiled, pretty shortly thereafter, he had cancer, he died. He never really got to live his life. He was a 22-year-old that was called into service way before he was, it was time for him to go to service and learned on the job and did a fantastic job. And then he died. He never really got to live. his life. it's sad that, you you know that, you know, under Islam is, I mean, under Iran's monarchy, constitutional monarchy, the king or the parliament got to a point. the prime minister and then vice versa, one or the other one had ratified. So just the same way that President Trump gets to appoint his cabinet and at the pleasure of the president or at the pleasure of the king, he removes his cabinet. Now, could the CIA have been involved? Yes, the CIA was involved, but who did they hire? Who did the CIA hire to get rid of Mossadeq then? They hired Khomeini and Rafsanjani and Khomeini, the same characters that the CIA had in hand to bring in the 1979 revolution, but CIA misinformation pumps the media about how Iran had elected, ⁓ democratically prime minister and then was removed. No, they're providing the misinformation because they don't want the fingerprints of them being responsible with British MI6 and Queen Elizabeth and other European powers to put these animals in power and they've been causing nothing but misery and death and destruction, not just of Iranian people, not just of the Middle East, but the entire world. Look, they bombed the Jewish center in Argentina on a different continent. Amir Golshani: So that being said, I recently had a conversation with Professor Ali Ansari phenomenal, historian who's a real expert about modern Iran. I'm quoting from him. We have so much history that even as Iranians, let alone to, foreigners, you know, we know a little, a little about it, so knowing history, that's a great point you mentioned. there is... Getting back to what's going on right now, ⁓ there is a heated debate about striking dual use infrastructure in Iran, specifically power and energy that might be tied to the IRGC. As someone who builds infrastructure in the US, do you see these strikes as a surgical necessity for liberation or a burden that unfairly punishes over the 90 million people waiting for change? Abteen Vaziri: You know, this is a very loaded question you asked me because this is one that I think divides a lot of Iranians. And my goal is to make sure that we don't divide the Iranians. I want to make sure, you know, whatever different, you know, political beliefs that we have, whatever different political ideology or different forms of government that we have, that we all come together and fight the real enemy. And then when the real enemy, which is the IRGC and the Mullahs that have this death grip on Iran, once they're gone, then we can settle our differences. But this one is pretty, It's a pretty loaded question, but I'll give you example. That bridge that was just blown up, the way I understand it, and I don't have all the facts, but the way I understand it, this was a bridge that was supposed to connect Tehran to Karajah, it was supposed to cut down on amount of traffic and the time it took between Tehran and Karajah. And a lot of people in Tehran kind of treat Karajah as kind of an area where they go, they have villas or they have their gardens or they visit back and forth. And so the way I understand it, this bridge was not open to the public. was being used by the ROGC to move missiles and in fact there are debates online that it might have been ⁓ an anti-aircraft battery on this bridge. I think this bridge was also kind of a symbol of how modern these molas were because they haven't really built a lot of infrastructure. They definitely haven't built a lot of bridges since the Shah's time. And I know when the Shah was in power, Reza Shah, this is actually one of the reasons that he got exiled. He brought the best engineers from Germany and built some of the most sophisticated bridges and railways in Iran. And the reason that the British and the Russians basically forced them into exile is because Iran had such a sophisticated network of railways and roads and they used Iran, Allies used Iran as a way to resupply Russia, otherwise Russia would have been destroyed by the Nazis. So it's a loaded topic, it's not one that you can I think talk about without getting heated or getting some people uncomfortable, but listen, if a bridge wasn't being used, hasn't been used by people and it was used by military, fair, right. Amir Golshani: I believe that bridge to be fair, wasn't even formally ⁓ Yeah, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't. Abteen Vaziri: I think that bridge is fair game. listen, there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes of President Trump. think a lot of times gets, you know, unfairly or sometimes fairly, you know, people criticize him. But, you know, some of the comments that he makes, but, you know, people, you know, people get offended. I have friends in Iran that are, you know, on Starlink and they're like, you know, I can't believe he said he's going to bomb us to the stone age. He's like, he's not talking to people around. He loves the people around. He's saying, The Mullahs, they're a grip and power that won't let go power that are risking your lives. And by the way, every organization they have doesn't even talk about the people in Iran. They haven't built any bomb shelters. In Israel, there are tons of bomb shelters, right? Every, you know, they spent $400 billion building this underground missile sites, which by the way, cut out all the water, which in Iran, a lot of people thought the water was cut off because they were selling the water to Kuwait. or they thought they just dried up. Now they realize they cut off the water on purpose, put all the farmers out of business because of their missile program. Because those caves that had certain type of materials that them from a nuclear weapon or a bunker buster, if you put water in those caves, they crack. So they basically cut out water from the people. the just doesn't care. care about the people. look at their occupying force that are using Iran's natural resources to get to their end goal, which is wiping Israel off the map and to keep growing this Islamic caliphate around the world, and really don't care at all about the people of Iran. Even if 90 million people were wiped off, they wouldn't care. So when the government doesn't care about the people of Iran, why are the people get so upset when President Trump says something that's not actually pointed towards the Iran people? It's pointed towards the IRGC. Amir Golshani: I understand the way you're responding to this question. I totally understand that. But Americans claim that they are going to help Iranian people. There should be a precise calculation. What hurts more and increases suffering. have suffered enough for 47 years and this country needs be rebuilt. But vital infrastructure is something that that causes these confusions, know, even those pro-Americans that say, we're living here. We do not want to, so suffer more. That's the main reason. And the absolute distinction between, you know, people and regime is needed more ever ⁓ at least at part of, the discussion, Abteen Vaziri: I respect what you're saying, but I think ⁓ us ⁓ you sometimes I wear my American hat, sometimes I wear my Iranian hat, which, you know, this is an emotional time for us. Like we've been dreaming about a day like this. We were hoping that it wouldn't be like this. We were hoping it'd be a quick victory and the mullahs would be gone. But these guys are death called. They're not going to be quickly gone. And I think, you know, let's step for a second, right? Let's put ⁓ ourselves in Trump's shoes. President Trump, you we couldn't even get President Bush to send a simple tweet, or we couldn't get President Obama to send a simple tweet in support of people that were demonstrating. We're begging for them to just send a tweet. That's all. You know, now the game has changed. President Trump has sent three aircraft carriers and risked American lives in the middle of midterm to go deal with this. But we have to understand and put ourselves in President Trump's shoes. President Trump is not risking his entire legacy and the military and the United States to save the people of Iraq. think ⁓ one of the caveats is that he's trying to do, he wants to get rid of Islamic Republic for good for the world. Number two, actually probably number one, his goal is a much bigger chess game that he's playing with another power that wants the United States gone. Listen, I've... Amir Golshani: No, of course not. Fair enough, Abteen Vaziri: I've done EB-5 fund raising. I've been to China 30 times. I've been to 20 different cities in China. And this is all about China. is all about China and getting rid of this proxy regime, which China signed a $400 billion oil ⁓ gas agreement with, which China was trying to flood the European markets with their junk through the Silk Road through Iran. And then also the whole Syrian war is all about Russia trying block Qatar and the Gulf countries selling gas to to Europe. this is a much bigger chess game that President Trump is playing and a great consequence of that is freedom for the people of Iran. But people in Iran need to not be naive and think President Trump is not doing this at the goodness of his heart to free the people of Iraq. If that was the only goal, he would not risk American lives and he would not risk, you know, ⁓ lot of resources and the midterms and potentially him losing in the, you know, the Republicans losing in midterms and people trying to impeach him and trying to bankrupt in which they try to do to him. So this is a much bigger game and people of Iran need to understand that President Trump is doing the right thing, but he's not doing it to the goodness of his heart just for the Iranian people. He's doing it to the goodness of his heart to protect the people of the United States, which is his number one job from Chinese aggression, from Chinese controlling resources in the Middle East and Chinese potentially trying to attack Taiwan. So all of this is related. Why did he go after Venezuela first? He was trying to make sure that he regains the people of Iran need to understand that President Trump is doing the right thing, but he's not doing it to the goodness of his heart just for the Iranian people. He's doing it to the goodness of his heart to protect the people of the United States, from Chinese controlling resources in the Middle East and Chinese potentially trying to attack Taiwan. the oil and gas resources of Venezuela and Venezuela was essentially dumping free oil to China and to Cuba. So the other reason was the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah had military bases and terrorist training camps in the island of Margarita. So first he wanted to plug that, and by the way, that could have also been an exit route for these Mullahs. These Mullahs had bought essentially the island of Margarita and if someone came and attacked them, they were all going to get on a plane and escape to Venezuela. He made sure that he plugged their escape route plus their military outposts and that as well. Then he went after Iran. This is a much bigger grand chess game that is going on between the United States against, I think to a lesser extent Russia, but against China and also to European powers. I think President Trump is bluffing when he's saying we're going to be done with this two or three weeks. He's sending 50,000 troops, ground troops to the region and he's going to keep sending more. I think President Trump actually wants a long, long drawn out. a battle between the United States and Israel and the Iranian forces because it doesn't hurt the United States. Now the markets fluctuate and it hurts oil and gas prices in the short term, but what he is really is doing is putting immense, immense, immense pressure on China. And he might be able to, with this move, bankrupt China pretty soon. I China's got maybe 60 more days of oil and gas reserves and if President Trump what he is really is doing is putting immense, immense, immense pressure on China. And he might be able to, with this move, bankrupt China pretty soon. gets control of the oil and gas resources and tells China, listen, we'll sell you all the oil you want, but as long as you act right, the minute you start to try to attack Taiwan, we'll cut your oil off. So this is a much bigger strategy. I think as an Iranian American, very American, but I deeply, deeply care about Iran and our people. And ⁓ watch these videos, people can ⁓ it, I cry. But as an American, I think Iranians need to understand that President Trump has got a lot of different battles he's fighting all in one. And sometimes we just have to be patient. And by the way, look, Japan got nuked in World War II. Germany got destroyed. All of Berlin was gone. But Japan and Germany basically came out of ashes and two of the most successful economic powers in the world. Israelis care about Iran. 20 % of Israel's population are from Iran. And so they care about Iran. They're not going to nuke Iran or destroy the infrastructure. But if something does happen, it's to get rid of this regime so we can all rebuild and have one of the most prosperous countries in the Middle East and Iran. And what better ally for the United States? Sorry. That was a long-winded answer. Amir Golshani: This is kind of clarification. No, no, this is good. This is kind of clarification I'm always looking for by bringing up these subjects. as a former political refugee, what is the one thing that average American voter completely misunderstand about the cost of freedom that people in Iran pay every single day? Abteen Vaziri: Listen, I'm going tomorrow to testify in front of the Texas Board of Education. ⁓ of the things that's a big issue here in Texas is this issue of Islamification. ⁓ I don't know if you saw the videos, but I went to the epic mosque where they had a candidate forum and I asked them, said, you you guys had a prayer. Why didn't you pray for the people that run? You know, I go to a church. I asked the church to pray for the people around. They didn't ask me what political ideology they were. They asked me if they're Republican or Democrat. They didn't ask me if they're communist. or terrorists, they didn't even ask me what religion they were. They prayed for them. But in a mosque, in a mosque, I asked them to pray for the people of Iran and they all yelled and screamed at me and they said, well, those are all Mossad agents. said, listen, 45,000 people have died, they're children. Some of them as young as six, how can you say they're Mossad agents? And this is the issue that's really facing Texas right now, really big. And the reason, you we could talk about the strategy of why they've chosen Texas and Florida as the battleground for this Islamification issue, in mosque, I asked them to pray for the people of Iran and they all yelled and screamed at me and they said, well, those are all Mossad agents. said, listen, 45,000 people have died, they're children. Some of them as young as six, how can you say they're Mossad agents? But what I tell people that people that don't understand until this day people don't understand Iran was a secular government was you know we have all the freedom it was a great country none of us had any reason to want to move to the US Iran was great in fact my parents got pregnant with me they didn't want me be born in the US they did reverse birthright citizenship they went to Iran to make sure I was born in Iran because Iran was a great place people closed their eyes they blinked they opened their eyes and all those freedoms were gone And this is the part that I think people in the United States don't understand. They're like, oh, we won't let them. Well, know, the Shah of Iran beautifully coined this term, the silent majority. The silent majority, that term is used a lot in US politics, but very few people were on board with the Islamic Republic. most people were just complacent. They didn't care. They didn't want to involve in the political process. Said, we're not politicians. We don't care. I'm going to go to work. I'm going to go home. Everything's going to be fine. Well, 47 years later, every single one of those people realizes they made a huge, huge mistake. And every single one of those people questions themselves, why didn't it say something? Why didn't we say something when it was the right time? That's the biggest lesson to be learned here for Americans and not just for Americans, for people all over the world. But look what happened to Europe. Amir Golshani: It always reminds me that anecdote that someone was making a hole in a boat and others were indifferent. So saying he's dealing with his own space, It always reminds me that anecdote that someone was making a hole in a boat and others were indifferent. So saying he's dealing with his own space, but all of them, all of a sudden they were drawn all together. So the same thing. So you can... ⁓ Abteen Vaziri: It's the same exact example with the Paris Accords, All the lefties were pissed off, excuse my French, at President Trump for removing the United States out of Paris Accords. President Trump didn't say that we shouldn't care about the environment, we shouldn't care about the planet. He pulled out of Paris Accords because the same environment, China and India, get to pollute all they want. And it's the same exact, like the example you get, the same boat. We're in the same boat. But somebody's allowed to put a hole in and we're not allowed to, and he's like, this is unfair. President Trump, one of his biggest issues, he doesn't explain this stuff. He just assumes people understand it. But if he takes time and actually explains his thought process, I think a lot more people would agree with him that Paris accords were not fair because China could pollute for 30 more years in the same environment, the same boat that they're putting a hole in, and we have to live by. Amir Golshani: Right, absolutely. So I really love what you said. ⁓ if you could speak directly to the youth in Tehran today, those who see your success in the US, what would you tell them about American Dream versus the Iranian reality? Abteen Vaziri: Listen, I just hope that every child in Iran is going to have the same opportunity we have in the United States. see so many brilliant kids. mean, the comedy they're making in Iran, they all speak English, they're all part of social media. There's just so much talent in Iran. And this talent is not being used. Because some of those ⁓ that are in Iran could be the founder of the next Apple. Some of those kids could be the next know, athlete that they're not given the right opportunity to be the best soccer player, the next basketball player, the best hockey player. In the US, we have this very specialized society where you can focus on one thing and be good at that one thing, and then you could become successful. In Iran, there are so many people that don't get that opportunity, and it's so sad. And in my immigration, I explained that, you know, here are two people who are immigrants that came to this country. One, Elon Musk. You know, he was an immigrant. in South Africa, didn't have any opportunities, came to Canada, then went to Wharton, became US Green Card holder, and he's revolutionizing the world as an American. The other one was Steve Jobs. parents were, ⁓ father was a Syrian refugee and even want him, gave him up for adoption, but that kid grew up to revolutionize the world. Every single kid in Iran, should have that opportunity and they shouldn't have to come to the United States. We should take those freedoms to them so they can help build that country. And people like me or people that are successful entrepreneurs, successful lawyers, successful they should be able to go back to Iran and help rebuild Iran the way it really needs to. Amir Golshani: Absolutely, I really love it. you ran for Congress. What is the biggest blind spot in current U.S. foreign policy regarding the Islamic Republic? you ran for Congress. What is the biggest blind spot in current U.S. foreign policy regarding the Islamic Republic? Abteen Vaziri: I think a lot of, mean, listen, the whole political game, it's all about lobbying and money and where money goes and influence. ⁓ the Islamic Republic currently has two very powerful active lobbies and people that, you know, they send me all these ⁓ threats and messages like you work for APAC. So listen, I have no love for Israel other than Israel is the only country in the world that came to save my people. You know, I'm not getting paid for AIPAC. If you know someone that I can connect at AIPAC to get paid from, I would love to get paid by AIPAC, but they're not paying me. But people don't realize that the Islamic Republic has these two very powerful lobbies here in the United States, and NIAC and the Quincy Institute. And NIAC was formed by a gentleman named Trita Parsi, and I use that term gentleman very loosely, and he's been doing the bidding for the Islamic Republic. In fact, they have potential far-out violations, which basically makes it illegal if you do a lobby for foreign entity, let alone a foreign entity an adversary of the United States. then, so in 2019, he left NIAC and created, know, covered his tracks a little better and created the Quincy Institute. And I talk about these two organizations because they're out there and they're so smart. They're very smart. They're very sophisticated. Listen, they're not good people, but you got to give them credit. They're very sophisticated. And most Iranians, when I post about them, they come back and they're like, deport them, send them to the FBI. What Iranians don't understand is that the FBI knows all about them. Politicians know all about them. They're in every congressional office every week meeting with them. Everything they're doing is legal. It's just that in the US we have the legal framework and they're just hiding legally on their legal framework and they're doing lobbying for the Islamic Republic. Where in the past, Trita Parsi had emails with Javad Zarif and he was trying to negotiate the JCPOA to help them get nuclear weapons. Today, his goal is much different. Today, his goal is just survival. And so he shows up on different talk shows. Trita Parsi had emails with Javad Zarif and he was trying to negotiate the JCPOA to help them get nuclear weapons. Today, his goal is much different. Today, his goal is just survival. And you know, he's pretty sophisticated. He won't say, oh Iran is great, I'm doing lobbying for him and all these mullahs are paying me and they should be, you they should be in power forever and ever. No, that's not what he says. He says, the Islamic Republic is evil, they need to fall and they're going to fall on their own. If we attack Iran, you know, we're doing Iranians a disservice, we should just let them fall on their own. Because his masters by the Islamic Republic or the mullahs or whoever is pulling his yank and his chains, are very sophisticated. They're not telling them, they're just like, we just need to survive. If you can just get the pressure off of us where the President Trump doesn't keep going on with this attack on the Revolutionary Guard and Islamic Republic, we can survive and then we can regroup and do our nuclear crap that we want to do again. So that's how sophisticated they are. But I think Iranians don't understand that they're... ⁓ we just need to survive. If you can just get the pressure off of us where the President Trump doesn't keep going on with this attack on the Revolutionary Guard and Islamic Republic, we can survive and then we can regroup and do our nuclear crap that we want to do again. they're operating legally, they're not breaking any laws except for the far-off violations, I think those should be investigated. But the lobbying that they're doing and the whole political game is a very dirty game, but most Iranians don't understand it. And I think we need more people like me to want educated Iranians how the world works. In Farsi, we have a very beautiful term. said, doña de sequea, which means who's running the world, literally. And to understand politics is to understand Who really is running world? Who's running the United States? Where is the power coming from? Where is the lobbying money coming from? Where these power centers? And then people will understand how the political process works. the thing for me running for office, ⁓ other getting a platform to be able to be on talk shows like yours and explain to the Iranians to the future generation ⁓ the threats we have that could threaten all of Western civilization. The other thing is me inspiring, for example, the 17-year-old who I asked him to become an intern in my office and he came and I said, listen, instead of you going to work in a grocery store putting down your resume, put on your resume as a 17-year-old, you work in a congressional office. And I encouraged a lot of my friends as kids to come and a lot of them did come and help. And this is the thing, if I could inspire 10, 17-year-old Iranian Americans to study up to want to be politicians, then I've succeeded. think Iranians just don't make up country of 330 million in the US. We have something like two million Iranians in the US. They're very little, almost zero politicians from the Iran. Iranians are very interested in business, so they're on going politics. And unfortunately, we have a ⁓ who's US born, who's Iranian, named Yasmin Ansari, but she's funded by NIAC. gets campaign by NIAC and she's openly being hostile to President Trump for attacking Iran. under the guise of, I need to save my people. No, your people are begging for bombs to be dropped on them. Your people are saying, please don't stop the bomb. You're not listening to your people. This is you working for NIAC saying exactly what you're pretending to be the people around, but it's not the people around. Amir Golshani: all that being said, so what needs to be done for these two institutions that you mentioned? So what do you think is doable and ⁓ realistic? Abteen Vaziri: I think, listen, I think the powers that be, the DOJ, I think knows of their existence. We just saw that Secretary Rubio basically canceled the residency and green card for the niece of Qasem Soleimani. I think they're going to go down the list. And these guys have a lot of magnifying glass on them. And I think they should be really, really careful. because think it's coming. ⁓ happen slowly in the government. Things happen very slow in the DOJ when they want to build a case against someone. takes time. And they have to do all their homework, and they have to do all their research. But I think the DOJ is going to wake up and come after these people. Because it's not just that they're doing lobbying for a foreign country like Israel or a foreign country like Ukraine. They're lobbying for a foreign country that's right now at war with us and not for a foreign country. for Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which in their entire name, nothing is mentioned of Iran. Amir Golshani: Right, right. So, OptiMini called for regime change, but you talk about regime transition. Based on your legal ⁓ financial background, what does a day one economic recovery plan for a free Iran look like? Abteen Vaziri: Listen, think someone, and I think the Crown Prince, I met him when I was 18 years old. I was running a student movement coordination committee for democracy in Iran. I met him as part of that. And this man, listen, people criticize him. They say he's not tough enough. say, but this man, you cannot question his heart. This man has dedicated 47 years of his life to public policy, to Iran, to bring in this democracy to Iran. And he's very educated, very knowledgeable, got a master's degree in public policy from USC. he's been talking to all the relevant people. And listen, when he was here in Dallas during CPAC, he went and met with the business leaders because he understands rebuilding Iran is not just, you know, who's going to write the new constitution, who's going to be in power. But we need business community to get excited, to want to come invest in Iran. Imagine Iran has been, you know, this is people of Iran, not just not the IRGC, but the people are so innovative under these ⁓ sanctions they've been able to survive. Imagine when the world opens its doors and brings foreign direct investment, not just in the oil industry, not just in infrastructure, but in tourism, travel, Iran's going to flourish. I think crown prince is going to be the catalyst, but every single Iranian needs to do their part. All of us need to do our part, whether we give money, whether we go out there in boots on the ground, whether ⁓ lent our expertise. I've got a little bit of expertise on on passports and immigration. spent 16 years doing EV5 fundraising. I've been to 42 different countries in the world. I got a law degree and got licensed to practice in Texas and New York. worked for a couple different hedge funds and have investment background on how to set up a stock exchange or the broker dealer. These are skills that every single one of us could add. Somebody is in music and they're going to add. music back to, you know, whatever. Somebody else is in the construction business. I used to be on the board of directors of a hotel company, know, 142 hotels. think, you know, hotels ⁓ and infrastructure, travel infrastructure are going to be amazing. If you build the travel infrastructure, money will go in and money will spend money, and that will give the people the resources start building other parts of the economy. I think tourism is really, really, really important. Obviously, oil and gas resources, I think it's a travesty that Qatar and some of the Gulf countries have been taking advantage of the people around with the help of European powers by really stealing the gas under the South Park's gas field. And ⁓ European powers have been starving Iran on purpose and diverting the same gas that comes from the same. ⁓ mentioned the same hole in the boat. This is the same hole in the ground that Iran and Qatar share, right? A ton of gas comes from there. The Sea has got one of largest gas reserves in the world. It's got the largest Amir Golshani: All Abteen Vaziri: There's just so much richness that Iran has, trillions and trillions of dollars of natural resources. But our biggest asset, our biggest national treasure, isn't our oil or our caviar or our pistachio, it's our people, our smart people, the brains of the people that we have. And when the Shah was removed from power, someone beautifully said, our biggest national treasure, isn't our oil or our caviar or our pistachio, it's our people, our smart people, brains of the people that we have. Our national treasure wasn't oil. Our national treasure was our king that was so educated that he set up OPEC. He taught the United States how to build the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Richard Nixon, which he became law in 1975. He was just workaholic, and he spent from 22 years old until he died when he was, think, in his late 60s or 70s. He every working minute trying to make Iran better. You could criticize him. You could say bad things about him, but he loved Iran. That's not something you could say about these mullahs. Amir Golshani: Right. Abteen Vaziri: People, you need people that have passion for Iran. I think every Iranian in the diaspora is going to have a part to play. It's not just, ⁓ who's going to go back and rebuild. think everybody has to, you know, and if all of us are rowing in the same direction, whether it's 10 million or 20 million people in the diaspora, if we all row in the same direction, Iran could be a really magnificent place. Amir Golshani: 100 % agree with what she said, 100%. So what did the problem that I see is the concept of unity. I don't know why different opposition groups, cannot get united and then find it so difficult. Do you have any suggestion? Abteen Vaziri: You know, see that by the way. ⁓ I see that. Amir Golshani: Because believe it or not, we are following the same goal to get rid of this system, you know, and to have a transition for liberty and freedom. So if that's the end goal, you know, yeah. Abteen Vaziri: We're so divided, but let me tell you something really controversial. Iran, let's just talk about sports. Iran has been of the first countries in the world to involved in the Olympics and wrestling and all that. So we have this huge culture. We've always had gold medals in wrestling. We dominated the world in wrestling, I think, in the ⁓ 30s, 50s, 60s. We've been great at taekwondo. We've been great at a lot of different sports. ⁓ tennis we've had champions. But when you look at our culture as a society, think we need to be aware. As a person, you have to be aware of what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. So as a society, we all need to wake up and we have to understand what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are. mean, how many successful business leaders do you know that are running? Tons of CEOs, tons of founders ⁓ and Omer or or MediArt to Uber and the current CEO, just Iran has a lot of really, really, really sophisticated business leaders. Iran also has a lot of sophisticated athletes who are just amazing athletes. But you know we don't have a lot of medals? sports. I mean, look, our soccer team should be so much better than it is, but we always fall short. Our basketball teams, all of our organized sports, they fall short. And I've this as a curse and a blessing. We Iranians have a culture that breeds a lot of alpha males. ⁓ individual sports, being alpha and having a lot of confidence is very helpful. In team sports sometimes, and I experienced this, I played soccer at University of Texas at Dallas, and I played organized soccer. You we had a team and I learned the American way, right? And then I tried to go play with my Persian friends. And it was a disaster. Everyone wanted to score a goal. No one would play defense. No one wanted to be in the goal. So I would volunteer to be a goalie because nobody else wanted to do it. Right. And my grandfather was actually Iran's national team goalie. A lot of people don't know that. You know, they won a lot of games and won Asian championships, but they always fell short going into the World Cup. you know, but we have to as a culture, we have to understand that we have the shortcoming. It's it's a it's a know, blessing, it's also a curse. We're not good at team sports because there's too many alphas that want to be leaders. You know, I have people that message me that if I could just get two minutes with the Crown Prince, let me tell them opinion. Every Iranian has an opinion. They want to tell President Trump how to run the country. They want to tell the Crown Prince how to run the, you know, and that's very admirable. It's beautiful. But you have to understand, you know, ⁓ by the way, it's like ⁓ all walks of life. Amir Golshani: Right. Abteen Vaziri: So as Iranians, this is so beautiful to be on your show to talk about this, and I hope people listen to this, it's so important that we have to, as a society, have to understand that we have this shortcoming where everybody wants to be a captain, no one wants to be a soldier, we all have to say, we all have a role to play. Today, my role is maybe I'm the street sweeper, but tomorrow I go graduate college and ⁓ something. So we all have to understand we have a role to play, and I promise you, You know, the crown prince is not interested in 90 million people telling them their opinion on how the country should be run. Neither does President Trump want 330 million Americans telling them how to run the country. So as a society, we have to understand that we have this blessing, which makes us great business leaders and great medal winners in individual sports, but it makes us so bad at team sports. And this is the same issue. Like right now, it's not just all the factions that are fighting. We have Iranian organizations here in Dallas. And I'm trying to be friendly with all of them and they're all fighting each other. And I'm like, you one day they're all leaving each other. Oh, you're Joe Marias, let me you were with the IRGC. People message me. Somebody messaged me because I posted a I reposted an article about Iran's oil and someone accused me of working for the Islamic Republic because I didn't put the right flag. And I didn't want to even give him credibility to answer them. I said, Lady, I own the domain name lion and son dot com. I've owned it since 2004. I'm obsessed with the lion and son. If you're going to label me as a goon of the Islamic Republic, if you haven't watched my videos, if you haven't paid attention to my career, if you haven't seen that my father went and marched in Berlin or in Dusseldorf, Germany with a picture of the Crown Prince back then in 1989, not that I have to explain myself, but there's this division that we all have to fight each other. And let me tell you, the one group that I do want to fight is I want to fight the people that are trying to preserve the Islamic Republic. I do, I am tough on them, I am going to fight, but if you're a mujahid, even mujahid, I think they're going to have have seat at the table with the shah. I think the crown prince, you can't just kill off a portion of the population. You can't just destroy a proportion of the Now people that are involved in the killings, the people that are in the ROGC, that are stolen and killed, those people need to be dealt with. But everybody else needs to have a seat at the table. The only way you're have a democracy is every group needs to work together. There's the monarchists that think we can have a democracy. I still think probably the best version of democracy for Iran is a constitutional monarchy, which goes back to the crown prince helping bring in some kind of a transition government. I love the fact that even though he doesn't agree with Shirin Abadi politically, he thinks she has things to say and she's important to listener in matters of jurisprudence. Amir Golshani: Right. Abteen Vaziri: I hope she nobody that reaches out to a lot of lawyers like myself and in the United States to help formulate a new constitution for Iran. I do. But all of us have a job to do. And implore everyone to please ⁓ not fall to this weakness we have as a society where we all want to be the leader and nobody wants to be the fill in the role. But when it comes to rebuilding Iran, if we have 100 different people that want to be president. We can't, we gotta roll in the same direction. So the only way we're gonna build Iran is we're gonna recognize our weakness, which is we can't work in teams. We have to fix that weakness and we have to work in teams and rebuild Iran as a team. Amir Golshani: So talking about that weakness, unfortunately, the biggest winner is Islamic regime, you know, so following the same, same actually saying famous saying of create chaos and rule the people. So they're following this principle and they've been quite successful, but ⁓ hopefully it's going to end soon. ⁓ the topic and talk about China. You mentioned a grand scheme of, know, ⁓ chess, the chessboard of, you know, playing a strategic for the United States. create chaos and rule the people. So they're following this principle and they've been quite successful, dealing with China. So you've been vocal about Chinese influencing taxes specifically. How much of the current instability in Iran do you attribute to the life support provided by Beijing? much of the current instability in Iran do you attribute to the life support provided by Beijing? Abteen Vaziri: ⁓ I'll tell you something more controversial. think right now, I mean, look, all of the military leaders in Iran are gone. I think right now, President Trump is negotiating with China. All of the orders that are this Chinese Communist Party is running the negotiations in Iran. They're masters are China. China is sending planes, planes, planes, planes full of surveillance technology, weapons, these drones, these shahed drones that Iran claims they make, a lot of the parts are made in China, shipped to Iran. came out, by the way, genius of the Shahed because the United States even copied the shot, because it's a very way to destroy enemy. And ⁓ the your weapons the easier it is to mass produce them and beat the enemy, right? But a lot of these are made in China. And as someone went to China 30 plus times and ⁓ seen the that have there and have read documents in Chinese that are translated to English, they have this view of the world and their view is they've been screwed over by the West. But what they don't talk about is they were screwed over by Great Britain, them ⁓ to opium and taking their property and screwing them. But they don't care that it was Great Britain. Great Britain is also behind lot of this. Look, they're not helping the Iranian people. In all the ⁓ financial the BBC, the Telegraph, every single ⁓ publication you read in the UK, it makes it sound like Iran, the Islamic Republic is winning this war. So that tells you that a lot of the, you know, and my father used to tell me, you know, he had receipts. know, Rafsanjani and Khamenei went to the same terrorist training camps that were orchestrated by the Soviet Union back then, Czechoslovakia and Poland. That's where they made Yasser Erefat. That's where they made a deal that helped us get Iran. and we'll use Iran's resources to get you Gaza Palestine, and then we're gonna go and expand this Islamic caliphate and the rest of the world. This is a deal, that's why these Islamists, and there's also lot of ⁓ rumors Khomeini was kind of a British guy, but ⁓ Khomeini a Soviet guy, ⁓ And lot of people in the West may not know the history of this, but when it comes to even the backwards Islamic jurisprudence, Khomeini was an Ayatollah, was a Grand Ayatollah. Montezerri was even in a higher level Grand Ayatollah, but he believed in secularism and he didn't want the Mullahs to run the government. So the most evil part of the revolution was Rafsanjani and Khamenei and Rafsan, you know, Khamenei fooled Rafsanjani to help him get rid of Mu'taziri. And then when the time was right, he put him under the water and, you know, the most evil survived. It's very similar to, I mean, for people that are students of history, the Bolshevik revolution had this figurehead was educated, charming named Lenin. But Lenin had a bunch of thugs behind him. And one of those thugs was Stalin. What Iran's Stalin, is Khamenei because Khamenei was the most ruthless, the most brutal and eventually even though he wasn't the most charming, even though he wasn't the most respected, he quickly just gathered power and put them all under and became a dictator, by the way for 37 years, same amount of years that Stalin was a dictator before he died. Amir Golshani: Right. So you mentioned, you know, BBC and some specially UK based media that they're depicting a picture that Iran is winning. So in the current regional conflicts, you know, whatever is on, what is the signal we are missing amidst all the noise of social media activism? Abteen Vaziri: Iran, or the Islamic Republic, I should say, is very sophisticated in their propaganda operation, right? One of the things that they're very good at is creating their own ⁓ enemies. No, creating their own narratives, but creating their own opposition. When my father was thrown in court martial and thrown in prison, there was a of Air Force officers that started these meetings to start a coup d'etat. Amir Golshani: narrative. Abteen Vaziri: And one of his friends named Manoochehr who by the way, ended up dying in prison, they never let him out, told my father, hey, let's go, let's overthrow these mullahs and these Air Force officers. My dad went to one meeting and realized these Air Force officers all had beards. Under the shot, it was a no-no. You couldn't have, you know, in the regular military, you can't have a beard. So my dad went to one meeting, he didn't go to another meeting. And sure enough, this was a fake opposition created by the mullahs to find out who was against them. And then they gathered everyone that was against them and threw them in prison and killed them, right? So this was a very sophisticated operation. This is not something that a bunch of only in the seminary mullahs could come up with. This is the work of a very sophisticated foreign intelligence agency, whether it's the British MI6 the Russian, at time, KGB, this was their playbook. So the Republic, we all know, It didn't happen organically. It happened with a lot of help of lot of foreign adversaries. And the one takeaway, and listen, nobody wants to point to blame. think the United States had its, I say the United States, the Carter administration, which was very unsophisticated, Carter administration, that came, was a governor in a state, Georgia, didn't know nothing about foreign policy, and made this. huge strategic mistake that we're going to encircle the Soviet Union and not understanding how sophisticated the Shah of Iran was. Not only was he so sophisticated in keeping the peace in the Middle East, but he was so sophisticated. was an advisor to most of the U.S. President, including President and President, know, videos of him talking to President Johnson. President Johnson is asking him, Your Majesty, what is your view of ⁓ Argentina Brazil? And one of the things that President, I mean, that the Shah told President Nixon in 1973, he ⁓ said, afraid of the Chinese. Be very scared of them. They're sneaky. If they're ever gonna try to destroy you, they're gonna do it with a bio weapon. The Shah Iran told, Nixon this in 1973. What happened during COVID? I we still don't know, but chances are it was a bio weapon that was used by China, at least on the United States and the world, because they were upset that Trump was basically getting his way with trade. And they wanted Trump gone and they succeeded. you know, China is very sophisticated. are, you know, they are, you know, the documents that I read when I was in China, they see this this 50 year. view of the world where they're the only superpower in the world and in that world the United States doesn't exist. So where does the United States go? They're telegraphed in that this is what they're focused on. But I think the world really needs to pay attention to what China's doing and President Trump understands he's playing this chess piece, chess match with Russia and a much lesser extent but China. China is the biggest beneficiary of Iran. their European powers we see or benefit from Iran because they're not lifting a finger to try to open the strata hormones or to get rid of the regime. Amir Golshani: Right, Is it fair to say that you have managed the largest EB5 project in Texas? Okay. ⁓ Abteen Vaziri: Yes, I still believe till this day that the race, although there's a race that's going on, it be 150 million for a project that my friends are actually doing. But we did a $265 million hotel in downtown Dallas. I raised 98 million of it through EB5. It was a building that no one could figure out how to finance because it was tough. was a dilapidated building that in the 1950s was one of the most beautiful hotels in the world. It was the Stapler Hotel. It was the first building that had the largest ballroom in the world at the time that didn't have columns in the middle. Elvis and Sinatra and Tina Turner and Michael Jackson had performed there. This hotel was so beautiful. had a helicopter pad where back then there was no DFW. People from Love Field would go. And then imagine this beautiful building fell into ⁓ this repair and for 30 years it was vacant and nobody could figure out how to finance it and we financed it and brought it back to life. But funny enough, I had my 15 year business school reunion at the same hotel in 2018. So that was amazing to not only be able to bring that back to life, but even also enjoy it and have my classmates enjoy it in a reunion for my business school SMU. Amir Golshani: now we are seeing unprecedented internal pressure in Iran. Is this just another cycle or do you truly believe we are at the bell involved moment for the Islamic Republic? Abteen Vaziri: I think this isn't gonna be fast. think these people are either a... you know, fanatical death cult that they want the end of the world to come because in their mind this is how they go to heaven. The end of the world is coming. They've been planning for this end of the world and so they look at this as what they've been preached which is the end of world is coming and somehow miraculously they're going to kill all the Jews and you know, they're going to go to heaven with their 72 virgins. There's a lot of this three, four hundred thousand IRGC and Basij militia that Truly in the bottom of their heart believe that now whether you know, know it's false But they believe that you know people that are ideologue are hard to defeat second China is fighting tooth and nail to not get this Islamic Republic to fall because if China if the Islamic Republic fails China's power is weakened a lot So I don't think this is gonna be easy and I think when president Trump says we're gonna be out of there in two weeks I think I think he's bluffing I think he wants this to be drawn drawn out because China is losing oil and they're sending a lot of weapons and resources to these guys. And the United States, know, President Trump said, hey, listen, we're not really relying on the straight hormones. And then another thing that this does is it basically shows that the European powers are, you know, they're not there to help us. The whole point of NATO was back when European powers actually had strength, we're all supposed to look out for each other, right? Now the European powers have all become complacent. It's basically, You know, it's one of the situations where you and your friend may have an agreement that if one of gets beat up, you're going to save the other person, except the other person is never going to save you. So the United States really exposed the European powers that, we have this NATO, we're putting all this money and resources into it. And if we were to go to war with China, if we were to go to war with Russia, you guys aren't going to help us. So why are we helping you? And this is another arrogance, I think, the European powers. Amir Golshani: Okay. Abteen Vaziri: It's like the example that I would give. Imagine Michael Jordan that had won six championship rings, and now he's 45 years old, he expects you to pay him the highest salary in NBA, not for what he's capable of today, ⁓ what he did in the past. And that's the European powers. The European powers were economic powerhouses. They were the bastions of freedom, beautiful and art and culture and museums and... ⁓ you know, what not came from Europe. But Europe doesn't really have a lot of playing cards today. They're not an economic powerhouse anymore. All of that economic powerhouse and military powerhouses shifted to the Middle East and Asia. And they're just bluffing and saying, hey, we should have a seat at the table when they don't really bring anything to the table. And not only do they not bring anything to the table, but they've been, know, France just went to the UN Security Council vote against the United States. the Europeans killed themselves and I don't think they were single-handedly to blame. think a lot of outside powers helped them kind of create their own demise. But the European experiment is over, unfortunately. And they still think that they're important and they didn't have the decision-making. And President Trump, listen, when he came to power, he went to Saudi Arabia, he went to Korea, he went to Japan, and then he's meeting with China. He knows where the power of the world relies. The saying that I said, doña da sequía, doña is not da se Europe. It's in the hands of, you know, Middle Eastern powers and Asia. And that's it. Europeans' power is their day of being a powerhouse of the world. over and they just don't want to accept it, unfortunately. And it's sad to see because I love Italy. I lived in Germany for two years. I root for the German soccer team. I love the United Kingdom, but they've at their own hands kind of destructed their societies. And other world leaders have failed to see that. President Trump sees it, says, you don't have any cards. Why should we negotiate with you? Amir Golshani: I love it. Right. Abteen Vaziri: It's very unfortunate, it's reality. President Trump speaks the truth. He's saying, you don't have any more power. Your power is gone. You destroyed your power. I'm negotiating with the Middle Eastern powers and I'm negotiating with the Asian powers because that's where the real powerhouses in the world are. Amir Golshani: Yeah, Abteen is anything that I haven't asked but you want talk about? ⁓ If yes, this is the time. Abteen Vaziri: You know, I think, you know, there's just a lot of Iranians I just feel so bad. I mean, I talked to a woman, her son was shot and was able to escape and every day ⁓ doesn't know what happened. So I talked to a lot of these people in Iran and it just breaks my heart. I cry every time I talk to them. But I think, you know, we all have to be a little tough. And we sometimes, you know, given a little tough love and not get so bent out of shape every time a bridge is destroyed, every time a Navy is destroyed, everything that happens. But we all have so much power as Iranian Americans or as Canadian Iranians or as European Iranians. We all been fortunate to be, you you said, you know, there's Iranians that are so much so talented. There's a lot of Iranians that could have the same career, the same future that I've had. They just weren't given the right opportunity. But how do we bring that back? How do we bring, you know, You know, think the people that are outside of the US, outside of Iran, need to be helpful and we all got to roll in the same direction. You know, there's Islamists like Mamdani, they say, hey, if you don't show up to the voting booth, then you're not a good Muslim. I need every Iranian, no matter what country they're in, get involved in the political process, get involved in educating the West what happened to us as Iranians. One day we had freedom, we blinked and that freedom was gone. My job is trying to educate people here in Texas to not allow these Islamists to get in position of power. Why do you think somebody like Mamdani is of the potentially Muslim and you know... propped up by the Muslim Brotherhood. Why would he want to be in charge of New York? It's not like New York has a military. It's not like New York can go fight Israel, which is their ultimate goal. But if you read, there's a document from the Holy Land Foundation lawsuit. It was dated May 22, 1991. It outlines the Muslim Brotherhood and their plan to take over the West and to use all of their money, their NGOs, their freedoms to destroy them from within. The example that I give is that Iran's been fighting this battle with radical Islam for radical Islam wasn't able to destroy when it was at its weakest in the 641. It destroyed Iran when was at its strongest in 1979, when Iran had the fourth largest military in the world, where Iran had the ninth largest economy in world, where Iran had one of the top air forces in world. That's when they destroyed Iraq. And how did they destroy it? From within. So Canadians, Americans, you have to wake up. You cannot let Islamists, and I'm not saying all Muslims, there's a lot of really good Muslims in the world. There's a lot of really good people that are moderates. But the people that have the bad intentions that are trying to get elected, the reason Mamdani is in charge of New York, because New York has a $127 billion budget. These Islamists are very good at leveraging money to use money to get power to try to destroy us from within. What Memdani is after is a $127 billion budget that's larger than most European countries. And people need to wake up. If he steals a billion here, a billion there, and uses it to socialist causes to try to get the democratic socialists of America elected and get all the Islamists in power, which, by the way, we saw what happened in Iran. The socialists and the communists and the Marxists and the Islamists, they all joined forces. and the Islamists killed every single one of them. You know why? Because Islamists are the most ruthless. the battle that's happening here in Texas, in the battle that's happening in the United States and in Canada, the Islamists have also recruited a new group, LGBT and any other, know, the pro-Gaza. Any group that's been marginalized, they're using as a tool to get into power and then they'll kill off the... LGBT first, and they'll kill the Marxist, and they'll kill the communist, and they'll kill the socialist, and then they're going to be staying in power. And that's their plan. Stalin coined this term, the useful idiots. Do not be the useful idiots for the Islamists, because they don't have good intentions for the free world. We all have to do our part to fight them. ⁓ don't let them intimidate you by calling you an Islamophobe. ⁓ said on interview I had with Tommy Robinson that I thought Islamophobia was a stupid term because phobia is a fear, an irrational fear of something. But Iranians have 47 years of Islamotrauma, a valid, very rational fear of their kids being raped. their kids being tortured, then being killed, and losing all their basic rights. Islamatrama, do not be intimidated by people calling you Islamaphobe or Islamatrama. You gotta speak the truth. And this is why I put everything aside and potentially could ruin my career. Anything I say, people are gonna say, ⁓ you're Islamaphobe. You know what, who cares? People in Iran are given their life. People in Iran are given their life. If I have to give my reputation to help them, I will do that. So don't be intimidated. Do the right thing and do your part for these people in Iran that are going out fighting the Islamic Republic with their bodies, with no guns. If I have to give my reputation to help them, I will do that. So don't be intimidated. Do the right thing and do your part for these people in Iran that are going out fighting the Islamic Republic with their bodies, with no guns. Amir Golshani: It is actually trauma. Yes, very well said. I want to close on something personal. ⁓ everything you've seen and everywhere you've been from Tehran to Dallas, what does freedom actually mean to you today? Abteen Vaziri: ⁓ I think freedom means that you have the freedom of expression. And one of the other things I forgot to mention is that the reason I moved out of New York I have this trauma. All of us suffer from this trauma. You suffer from this trauma. We don't know we suffer from this trauma. What we do, this trauma came back during COVID when I was in New York and you to show your papers to go get a hamburger at a restaurant. This trauma came out during COVID. I was in Taiwan, actually, when there was no COVID in New York. ⁓ of sudden, everything was falling apart in Asia. I escaped, and I had to go to Korea, and I came back to New York. Nothing was going on in New York. And then all this stuff in COVID came to New York. And I started seeing how a country that I always just looked at a bastion of freedom, a city like New York that was the center of the universe turned into an Islamic republic. I saw that. I saw that with my own eyes. If you don't wear a mask, you're not a patriot. Well, what does that remind you? The beginning of revolution when Iran was at war, if you don't wear your hijab, you're not a patriot. You you need to show your papers. All of this totalitarian playbook that came out, it personally affected me and all my trauma came out. And I was just like, I don't care I'm getting paid this huge salary working at this hedge fund in New York. I got to get out of here. This is traumatic. This is reminding me of the Islamic Republic. And sure enough, Two, three years after I left New York, Ayatollah Mamdani got elected. That's what really woke me up. got to get started in politics because I saw this coming. When the COVID garbage happened in New York, when they started taking away your rights one by one, the ⁓ you think they care if you wear a mask or not, or you think they care if they wear veil? It was all about control. And I saw it and I got trauma. And I'm like, New York is about to be an Islamic Republic. And sure enough, we have Ayatollah Mamdani now in New York. That really took a personal effect on me. just, a lot of people didn't see it, but someone that relived that trauma 47 years, that trauma came back. COVID brought all that trauma back. Amir Golshani: Abteen thank you for bringing your wisdom here. Abteen Vaziri: Thank you so much for having me. A pleasure. And if I could even inspire one Iranian American or Canadian Iranian to get involved in the political process, run for office and try to make a change, then I've succeeded. And thank you so much for giving me a microphone and a voice. Amir Golshani: Absolutely, I appreciate that. Thank you. Abteen Vaziri: Thank you.