Latest / FDD Morning Brief / The art of the ceasefire deal? | feat. Khosro Isfahani

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The art of the ceasefire deal? | feat. Khosro Isfahani · FDD Morning Brief

• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Good morning, it's Wednesday, April 8th, the multi front or the Middle East is now 914 days old and the ceasefire between the United States and the regime in Iran.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe on, I think for now, I don't know, or it's about to be implemented, we'll find out soon enough.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host Jonathan Shanzer, welcome back, yet again to the FPD Morning Brief.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, was it Taco Tuesday or did the regime in a run blink first?
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're all asking this question today, as both sides claim they got what they wanted out of this two week cease fire.
• 0:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have questions that eat answering to determine who came out on top with this deal.
• 0:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: First, what side is Pakistan on?
• 0:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a terrorist sponsoring, new proliferating nasty regime, and it's up to its eyeballs and debt to China.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is Pakistan trying to make friends with us to get out from under China?
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or is it doing Beijing's bidding?
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Second, if the regime is happy, do we really win?
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: They frame it as a total victory, no more US bases, no more sanctions and exchange for zero Iranian concessions.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Trump would never have agreed to this.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: My guests are trying to project strength to their own people.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Third, and to this point, what happens when the guns go quiet in Iran?
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Will the people reemerge and challenge the regime?
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Islamic Republic has reportedly shifted in proxies as reinforcements.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's hope the U.S. Israel and other enemies of the regime get the Iranians what they need to rise up and reclaim their country.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Finally, what happens next with Israel?
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're not done in Gaza.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're not done in Lebanon.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: They may not be done in Yemen either.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: In other words,
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: the multi-front war continues and Iran is still fighting Israel by proxy.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: In short, without bringing down the regime, we're back to square one, and other phase of this war awaits.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now for a couple of quick headlines before we get to our gas.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: headline one let's go to Lebanon yesterday the IDF said it completed the deployment of ground troops to a so-called anti-tank line in South Lebanon is really soldiers are now positioned along a ridge from which his balla was able to fire anti-tank guided missiles at communities in northern Israel whether the war in Lebanon is part of the wider ceasefire remains to be seen the Israeli say it isn't the Iranian say that it is
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Lebanese say that it, that it is, I don't know, but it certainly looks like things are about to heat up in the land of the Seeders, these railies.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just deployed a mass of them out of people.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: They cannot just call them home.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: This thing looks like it's moving forward folks.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: headline two, an American journalist kidnapped in a rock last week as on her way home.
• 2:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Shelly Kittlesen, a freelance journalist was snatched by a runbacked Katide Hizballa in Baghdad on March 31.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Her weeklong ordeal ended yesterday when the terror group released her on condition that she immediately leave the country.
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think she was going to contest that.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: The group said the release is a one time thing, I think so also, that is it decided to do in appreciation of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what any of that really means, but I'm glad the deal is over.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: headline three a firefight broke out a Jason to the Israeli consulate in Istanbul yesterday.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: The attack was awarded the gunmen were neutralized,
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: just venom that is spewed by Regiptaya bear to one, was any of this surprising, more over?
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I gotta ask, is this a sign that the Turks are slurping up Erdogan's anti-Israel collade, and are we gonna see more of this?
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I tend to think that he's radicalizing the Turkish society there.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like any of it.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: This looks like blowback to me.
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Finally, headline four, I'm still scratching my head over that massive explosion that we probably all saw yesterday on social media.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was the explosion at the Panama Canal.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: It certainly seems like one hell of a coincidence that an explosion nearly created catastrophic damage at the third of three major maritime choke points.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: The other two being the straight-of-four moves and Bobo Mandab both of which in recent weeks have been harassed and shuttered by Tehran or its proxy in the case of the Houthis in the Red Sea.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm waiting to learn more, but I don't believe in coincidences much these days, certainly not for the last two and a half years.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, time for the main event.
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm done with the hot air.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm done with the headlines.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Today's guest is Hostro Lispani, research director at the National Union for Democracy and Iran, otherwise known as Nuffty.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hostro's story is unlike just about anybody have had on this program.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Born and raised in Tehran, he spent decades there as a journalist and human rights defender.
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's also a bit of an Iranian James Bond or something.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's got stories about infiltrating missile facilities, smuggling classified documents, and delivering aid to vulnerable communities until the regime finally forced him into exile.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those experiences inform the work that he does today at Nofti, so without further ado, let's welcome Kostro onto the show.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the program, Kostro is Fahani.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Morning Jonathan, thanks for having me.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: it is my pleasure.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to start with just a big question before we get into all the headlines and the news from overnight.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just, I mean, I think we've had some other folks from Nifty on this program.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: You guys are kind of the mainstream Iranian diaspora organization in the United States.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty important role right now.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So maybe just tell us for a minute or two, what have you guys been up to over the last month?
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure this is insanely busy season for you.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, basically, three key elements that we have been involved with, there are a ton of other things that we were doing, but these are the three key things at least in my opinion.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: One, we have been trying to echo the voice of the Iranian people inside the country and outside how they perceive this war, how they are interacting with it.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is the actual view of Iranians?
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many have been trying to picture us as victims of this war, as opposed to this war, as
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: at fighting against this imperialist evil state, which is in many books, is the United States apparently.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have been fighting against that narrative constantly, but we have been on the front line of the narrative world, let's say.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: In addition to that, we have been trying to build bridges among the diaspora.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many when you talk with them would deny that there are any rifts among the diaspora that we are an absolute united monolate, but we are not like every diaspora community there are grievances, there is bad blood,
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: and we have been trying to go beyond all these grievances, create unity or at least mutual understanding that we are fighting for the future of Iran and we need to go beyond everything that is holding us back.
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a nation, we need it to act united if we want to see a freely-burated Iran.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in addition to that, we have been also engaging policy makers, decision makers here in the United States, from the administration to the hill.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have been running around like headless chicken, trying to convince American policy makers that there is one solution for the Islamic Republic, absolute annihilation or total humiliating surrender.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anything outside that is going to be a disaster.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hmm.
• 7:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
• 7:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, you've got your work cut out for you and I suspect it's not over even if the ceasefire holds.
• 7:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, but okay, that out of the way.
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I need to just ask you, flat out.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is a good deal.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Was it a bad deal?
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do we still not know how how how are we to understand what happened yesterday?
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Short answer?
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, it's not a good deal.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: When the Islamic Republic is happy about something, I'm definitely not happy about it.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are dealing with a death call that has taken my homeland hostage, has taken 90 million people hostage in Iran, and many more around the globe, how many thousands of people this regime has killed in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, name it.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: How many terror attacks they have unleashed on Israel against American citizens' Brits' French name?
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are dealing with a debt-scold, when a debt-scold is celebrating something as a win it definitely is not in the benefit of the free war.
• 8:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Islamic Republic since last night when this ceasefire was announced,
• 8:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: has been doing victory laps.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are saying that we have forced the United States into accepting our 10-point plan which allows the regime apparently to continue reaching uranium in post-control over the state of Hormos and charge $2 million per vessel for crossing this rate.
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Does that sounds like a win for the free world?
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't sound like a win to me.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it does, but I mean, I think I got to push back a little bit here because I mean, the regime is why, right?
• 9:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think it's gaslighting everybody.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's trying to project a victory out there to the world.
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's just gotten, I mean, it's gotten picked apart from a conventional perspective.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: The U.S. and Israel have destroyed a huge amount of that infrastructure, the defense
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: the IRGC, the besiege, everything is taking a beating here.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, I mean, is there an argument that the United States won, but the regime is just spinning all of this for the benefit of its own people?
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is a speech from Secretary Rubio from 2015, reacting to the JCPOA being signed, the nuclear deal.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he argues, addressing the history that if we allow the Islamic Republic, if we throw them this lifeline, if we allow them to survive, they are going to rebuild their military capabilities, they are going to build missiles that would be capable of reaching the United States.
• 10:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: The regime is not there yet, but they have already hit the Ego Garcia,
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are going to pursue weapons of mass destruction.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are going to export terrorism around the world.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: This ceasefire is not going to change the nature of the Islamic Republic.
• 10:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not capable of change.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are dealing with a regime that is branded and its agents are acting based on muscle memory.
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: They will continue escalating
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: until they achieve what they have always wanted.
• 10:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: World dominance, it's in the Islamic Republic's constitution, it's in the IRGC's charter, it's in every talking point coming out of the country.
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: They don't want peace, they want war.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think that goes without saying.
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: So then, all right, we understand that this is still a mortal enemy of the Iranian people.
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's still a mortal enemy of the Israelis.
• 11:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a, I think, still a mortal enemy of the United States.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: They call us the great Satan after all.
• 11:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that hasn't changed.
• 11:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So now, I guess the question that I have next is, can the regime survive the beating that it's just taken?
• 11:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's just say,
• 11:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: that they get the breather that they want here and that we have a ceasefire that holds for two weeks or longer, it could be a permanent ceasefire or a semi-permanent ceasefire.
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: The question that I have though is, I mean, after the beating that it's taken, the shame, I think of, you know, I mean, these rallies in the United States having air superiority, being able to pick apart this regime, everybody understands this, right?
• 11:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: There is an understanding that is weaker, that it didn't have real answers to much.
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it was able to find an asymmetric economic war in the straight of hormones and by attacking some of those oil-producing Gulf Arab states.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, can this regime hang on?
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do you think that it still functions as the regime did before?
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Does it look like something else?
• 12:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: How are we to understand it?
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Three elements, one, when you are building the regime to fight the whole world, you are building it to endure these type of confrontations.
• 12:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The architect of this regime, Ali Homeni, who is fortunately dead, builds this regime layer upon layer to whether these type of crisis.
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: The job point two, the job that was started during this conflict, but was a continuation of the 12th day war in June.
• 12:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: was to dismantle this regime.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: The job is unfinished yet.
• 12:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: A large portion of the Islamic republic's leadership is still intact.
• 12:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: People like Pauli Boff, the parliament speaker, HAA, the judiciary, chief, a ton of IRGC senior commanders are still taking breath.
• 12:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And these are individuals that are deeply aligned with the core ideology of this Islamist fascist state and
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: are going to pursue the same goals that harmony has embedded in the regime's DNA.
• 13:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are not going to change, they are not going to capitulate without dying.
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's what they are going to pursue.
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And point 3, the arms of oppression of this regime are still intact.
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: thousands of IRGC officers and message militia were taken out, thankfully, to Israel in drone strikes, but there is a larger chunk of this oppression force still intact, which immediately when Iranian stick to the streets is going to be deployed.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I earlier today, before I walked into this studio, I was watching videos coming out of the country, showing armed forces being deployed across the country, not with AK-47s, with Dushka's, this massive machine gun that every single bullet of it with literally demolished a whole body.
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the amount of deployment.
• 14:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: That the regime is dispatching and at the same time they are building the narrative around we have been victorious They are proclaiming it's the editor-in-chief of K-Hon the mouthpiece of the deceased how many literally wrote an article announcement
• 14:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: that we have won against the evil enemy the United States, and this deal have been endorsed by the dead Supreme Leader, how he's communicating with the dead, he has one of those boards that he can talk with ghosts, I don't know, but he's saying, right.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: That Ouija board, I guess, is pretty active, although it's really amazing.
• 14:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, how many can take use to tweak from the beyond?
• 14:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: You still have that active Twitter handle, which is pretty remarkable.
• 14:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, you know, it's like a zombie movie.
• 14:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: This guy won't die.
• 14:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, so we got to ask.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: You got the regime still holding on, crawling about a victory.
• 15:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: The US has done a lot to degrade the regime.
• 15:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: These rallies have done a lot to degrade the regime, but as you've just noted, there are still a lot more of the regime left, and that is obviously scary.
• 15:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So now, will the Iranian people come out?
• 15:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what is the story?
• 15:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: You talked about trying to unify.
• 15:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I want to ask you about that patchwork in a minute, but I mean, I guess maybe the first thing is, are the opposition figures within the regime, and I know you're in touch with some?
• 15:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Are they prepared to come back out again?
• 15:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is this something that they can do after seeing the slaughter of 40,000?
• 15:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: and now the regime is I think even more determined we're hearing about this large amount of weaponry that they're bringing out to the streets.
• 15:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're hearing about the militias, the proxies that they're flying into a run to help maintain that crackdown Arabs that are patrolling the streets again.
• 16:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I mean, are the people ready?
• 16:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: to multiple parts.
• 16:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: One last night when the ceasefire was announced immediately five minutes after it, I received a text message from someone inside Iran who refused to leave the capital because they wanted to be part of the protests that will bring down this Lama Republic.
• 16:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I received a text message from them with single words, what the hell?
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: What happened?
• 16:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's the ceasefire?
• 16:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why they have stopped?
• 16:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: That has been the general mood coming out of the country.
• 16:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Iranians see the United States and Israel as absolute allies in this fight against the Islamic Republic that they have been fighting.
• 16:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: The star and stripes of the United States and the star of David on this really flags are seen as flags of freedom by Iranians, as flags of liberty.
• 16:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: We absolutely appreciate everything that the United States and Israel have done for Iranians over the past 40 days.
• 17:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have been fighting and uphill battle against the Islamic Republic for five decades, helped never arrive.
• 17:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Finally, during this period, after that massacre we saw in January, help arrive.
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Iranians are appreciative of this help.
• 17:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's miraculous.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: The amount of destruction that we saw on the side of this Islamic Republic, if Iranians ourselves were going to do that amount of damage against this Islamic Republic, how many thousands of lives we should have lost.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are absolutely grateful for the help we have received.
• 17:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: But on the other hand, people inside Iran, we have been fighting this regime for five decades.
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are not going to relent.
• 17:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: This Islamic Republic at its core is an enemy of life.
• 17:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a dead cult that has tried to erase Iran, Iran, Iranians, it's culture, it's heritage.
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's future.
• 17:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are not going to relent.
• 17:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are going to keep marching until this regime is removed.
• 18:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: The job is going to still be hard, but it's easier compared to six months ago.
• 18:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's easier compared to even a month ago, halfway through this military operation.
• 18:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have received help and we are going to use it to move forward.
• 18:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, but let's talk about that help.
• 18:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what, what do the Iranian people need in order to do what needs to be done?
• 18:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: In other words, I mean, we talk about this all the time, it's, you know, it's weapons, it's training, it's cash, it's intelligence, it's communications equipment, is that is that flowing?
• 18:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Will it be flowing?
• 18:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And is that all you need or is there more than that?
• 18:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, well, what, what, what are you hearing from the opposition?
• 18:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: What are they asking for?
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's all of those in addition to that something else that was necessary and was being done during this military operation.
• 18:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: The decapitation that was happening at the top of the regime, that had a significant impact on how the Iranians are going to behave.
• 18:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you remove man after man from the top of this regime, you're draining its brain.
• 19:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: It becomes incapable of novel and creative thinking.
• 19:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: It cannot develop strategy.
• 19:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: That methodology targeted killings have historically worked for containing malign actors.
• 19:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether it was the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, or it was containing Palestinian terror groups.
• 19:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Targeted killing
• 19:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: of leadership of these type of organizations, states always works.
• 19:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: We already have seen it working in action right now during this war.
• 19:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: In addition to that, something else was happening and it was the drone targeting of arms of oppression of this regime.
• 19:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: earlier in March, we were celebrating Norruse, the Persian New Year in Iran.
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: People took to the streets after a call from Crown Prince Resopal.
• 19:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: We remember dancing, singing, chanting against the regime, and the Islamic Republic had threatened them that we are going to kill you if you take to the streets.
• 19:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And they actually deployed armed forces to kill innocent civilians because they were celebrating Norrus and his really drones were taking them out before they reached the targets.
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: That helps.
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is a chance for the Iranian people to take back to the streets.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are actual plans, there is actual preparations.
• 20:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it needs to be paired with help from outside, some types of those help you mentioned.
• 20:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Others can be drones, can be deployment of technologies that we can discuss offline.
• 20:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and I will actually welcome that that discussion offline because I do think we need to provide more and we just need to figure out what more looks like and I'm assuming the US and Israel and maybe other countries around the region know exactly what's needed and hopefully they're delivering that and they're delivering it quickly as we enter into this next phase of the war.
• 20:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: That would be by firm and hope.
• 20:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the other thing that I hope for and then I'm concerned about is this question of Iranian unity.
• 21:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: that patchwork of Iranian minorities, the Aziris, the Kurds, the Baluch, the Arabs, on top of the Persian majority, they don't all get along, right?
• 21:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the regime has turned them against one another, and even before this regime, there has always been historically some distrust.
• 21:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: What needs to be done right now to unify this patchwork of Iranian people?
• 21:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: So two things, one, when we talk about the issue of unity, when you look at people inside Iran, they are absolutely united.
• 21:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you're looking des in the eye, when you're marching on the streets and you're facing guns and bullets, there is nothing dividing you.
• 21:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 2022, when woman life freedom movement was happening, I interviewed a trans woman who lives in a carriage populated area that usually faces a ton of abuse when she goes on the streets.
• 21:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: But during the protests with the same looks she would take to the streets and she told me that no one gives a damn about how your dress, who you are, what's or your politics, you are there to fight this Lament Republic, you have absolute clarity about who the enemy is and you know that every other division, every other disagreement is going to be decided after this Lament Republic is gone.
• 22:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: The people in diaspora need to reach that point of clarity as well.
• 22:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have been marching towards that point.
• 22:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Look at how far the Iranian population has come from 2020 to until 2020-6.
• 22:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 2020-2, even capturing flags to diaspora rallies was an issue.
• 22:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: People got at each other's roads.
• 22:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: They were fighting, shouting.
• 22:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Police got involved in many cases in the past.
• 22:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right now, people are arriving at the rallies with literally every flag that they want, and there aren't much conflict.
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is still the vision, there is still misunderstanding, but the work of organizations like yours, like ours and many others in this space, is forcing the key actors, making them understand
• 23:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: that there is no going beyond this slummet republic without meaningful conversation, without meaningful convergence around a single goal, dismantling this slummet republic and bringing about a secular democracy in Iran.
• 23:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's it, and we need to work it.
• 23:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 23:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I wish you best of luck with that.
• 23:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to continue to do weekend.
• 23:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know you're going to continue as well.
• 23:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to thank you.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hosturalist Bahani for joining us today on the FTD morning brief.
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, some passionate stuff there.
• 23:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that is it for today's Wednesday episode, but don't worry, there's more where that came from.
• 23:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Check out our expert sharp analysis at FDD.org.
• 23:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: The around team has been crushing it for five weeks in counting.
• 23:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or if your attention span is feeling a bit short, you can always take a scroll through our social media content.
• 24:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: For the same analysis, just shorter and in different formats.
• 24:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're feeling especially generous head over to FDD.org slash and best to make a tax deductible donation,
• 24:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna need back on Friday for another episode.
• 24:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Will there still be a ceasefire?
• 24:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Will that be a good thing you're a bad thing?
• 24:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: The answers to those questions are coming up in just two days time.
• 24:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know you can't wait, either can I, but until then, I'm Jonathan Shanzer signing off for FDD.