Judging Freedom - Pepe Escobar : Why Iran Is In Trump’s Crosshairs!

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Pepe Escobar : Why Iran Is In Trump’s Crosshairs!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Pragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? the government? What if Jefferson was right? What if that government is best, which governs least?

What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, January 29th, 2006, from Paris, our dear friend and wonderful colleague, Pepe Escobar, joins us. Pepe, always a pleasure. Thank you very much for us late at night where you are, but this is much appreciated. Since Iran poses no national security threat whatsoever to the United States of America, why is it in Trump's crosshairs? Not only Trump's cross-hares, but it's a bipartisan issue in the cross-hairs of what I call the empire of chaos and plunder.

And we can say since the Islamic Revolution, of course, for over 40 decades, four decades, I'm sorry, 40 years. We could say for that since Cyrus the Great. Well, but especially since the neocons redacted their project for the new American century in the late 1990s, especially in the first and second terms of W, of course, when the refrain was bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran. Under Trump, one, especially, when he canceled the JCPOA, the nuclear deal, and now under Trump 2.0, but with help from all those neocons cells scattered all across the industrial military complex, all across the Beltway, and the connections in New York, Atlantis's connections, etc., media, academia, think, think, etc.

It's practically a consensus that there's got to be regime change in Iran. And this is where we are now. This has nothing to do with the Iranian nuclear program. Now we are in the middle of a very complex regime change operation. How can he possibly explain and justify this to the American public? He can't, Judge. Nobody can, especially because, you know, you hit it right in your first sentence. Iran poses absolutely no threat to U.S. security and interests. But Iran is sovereign.

Iran is a very old from the Persian Empire, civilization state. Iran is a member of the global South and the drive to form a new system of international relations, which is multipolar and multi-nodal, different nodes interconnecting. Iran is a member of BRICS and the Shanghai Corporation Organization. Iran has strategic partnerships with both Russia and China and an accent relationship with India. And Iran is part of the connectivity corridors of the 21st century, the most important ones. Some of them go through Iran. Two of them, the most important ones, go through Iran.

The International North-South corridor, which is Russia, Iran and India, and the Belt and Road, the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, of the New Silk Road, as we called them for 13 years already, which crosses Iran on the way to Turkey and then to Europe. So Iran, go ahead, please. Yes. Will Trump attack Iran without Israel, or stated differently? I mean, Netanyahu's a monster, but he's not stupid. Does he not understand the catastrophic effect on Israel if Trump attacks Iran?

Well, but this is Israel's war, Judge. That's the problem. Even if Israel takes a backseat in this, let's say, replay or remix of the 12-day war, where they got their asses kicked by Iran and Iran using 20% of their military potential only. And now what we're hearing from even the Minister of Foreign Relations, in Tehran is that we're going all out. We're going to use everything that we didn't use in the 12-day war. If there is the shadow of a doubt that a Tomahawk is going to hit Iranian territory,

the response starts immediately. So this is a completely different Iran that we were used to for the past few decades, which was basically reactive and passive, not anymore. Now, we know that Trump will articulate demands on Iran, and we know that they're impossible to comply with. He's going to demand that Iran get rid of all nuclear enrichment, even for civilian, hospital, medical uses. He's going to say that Iran must get rid of its best category of offensive missiles, the ones that can reach Tel Aviv. Why would Iran even consider these things? They won't.

And that's how it was interpreted in Tehran, Jod. It was interpreted as capitulation or war. And the Iranian response, very measured, don't forget, the Iranians are excellent diplomats. They are cool, calculating, they take their time, they analyze all scenarios. But it didn't take much time to reach out a conclusion. Okay, this is an ultimatum.

These three items that you just described, absolutely out of the question that they would even discuss these items, not to mention follow the dictat. So it's capitulation or war. So if we have a war inflicted on us by the U.S.-Israeli Congo, we're going all out. So this is an existential moment for the government in Tehran. and they are fully aware of it, from the leader to the IRGC,

which, by the way, today was upgraded or downgraded, depends on how you see it, by the European Union as a terrorist organization. So the IRGC for the Eroshiawavas is a terror organization. But the Eurushawas, of course, anything they do or say doesn't matter. They are not on the table on anything. But the fact that the people who received the former head shopper, let's put it this way, now installed as president of Syria, just like he was received by Trump.

And by the way, how he was received by Putin in Moscow yesterday, totally normalized. So Al-Qaeda and ISIS are totally normalized. And now the denormalized are the IRGC. Can the United States, we're showing pictures of the U.S. Navy? Can Iran deal militarily with the United States Navy? In terms of harassment, they have endless possibilities, endless, including this, I'm sure very few people in the U.S. know about it.

It's a ghost boat of the Zofagar class. What is a ghost boat? It's a ghost boat. You know, it navigates at around 40 knots, and then it goes underground to evade raiders, and then resurfaces again, equipped with torpedoes, and with a crew of eight more or less. These can, they can wreak havoc against mid-sized vessels

all over the Persian Gulf, the sea of Omana, everywhere. By the way, the Americas are not in the Persian Gulf, and they are not in the Sea of Oman. They are in the Arabian Sea. They are very, very far away still, and they cannot dare to go to the Persian Gulf because they will be sitting ducks for everything, you name it. Drones, swarms of drones, submarines, missiles positioned in islands in the Gulf. When you take over from Bandar Abbas Airport, you fly over the huge island of Ormuse. And there are other small islands in the Strait of Hormuz as well.

So all these islands are militarized. And obviously they will be pointing their endless guns to anything that will be floating over there. So if we have people in the Pentagon with the Nike over 50, they should have done. They're homework by now. We're not sure if they did. Can Tel Aviv withstand a serious and prolonged attack from Iran? No, they can. Especially these new generation hypersonic missiles.

The ones that were not used in the 12-day war, by the way, it is very important. The ones that some of us did not see when we were in Iran the last time. which was in May last year. These are the last generation hypersonics that they launched, if I'm not mistaken, only two or three against Tel Aviv the last time. And this time, they can launch hundreds. So the possible scenario of a sustained American attack, if it happens, it's unsustainable to start with because the damage in Israel,

not to mention all the American bases across the Gulf will be unimaginable so far. I'm going to switch topics over to Russia and Ukraine. Are the talks in Abu Dhabi another anchorage? No, they're not, Judge. It's a kabuki. It's still a kabuki. And we had not, I would not say too blood.

But on a bluntless level from zero to 10, this was probably between six and seven, coming from Lavrov and from Ryabkov, deputy foreign minister. They are saying that the spirit of anchorage at the moment is going nowhere. And I'm quoting Ryabkov here. He actually said nowhere. So these are the really, really important discussions because the Russians had the notion that they, they had reached a serious framework in Anchorage after five hours of talks for not only the, let's say, the liniment of a possible ceasefire resolution of Ukraine and also resetting of U.S. Russia relations. Nothing like that is happening at the moment. We have this, I would say,

it's becoming a Netflix series again. Dimitriyev with Goff and Jared Kush talking about the same things over and over again. And now in Abu Dhab. Have the Russians demanded of the Americans that they released President Nicholas Maduro? Well, obviously, the Trump administration is not listening, Judge. This is very important. Not only they are not listening to what the Russians

and the Chinese are saying exactly the same thing at the UN. No response. And if I'm not mistaken, a little more, a little over a week now, Putin actually said that any adventurism by the U.S. against Iran in the Persian Gulf would completely destabilize the Middle East. I prefer to use the West Asia terminology, the correct one. So obviously Trump administration is not listening to Russian China. Why? Number one reason is that if there is an attack against Iran, this will be an attack against Russian China as well.

will be an attack against three top bricks. And in the case of India, which is part of the transportation corridor, against four bricks. So the United States will be attacking indirectly and indirectly four of the top BRICS nations, which is something that we've been discussing for a year now. The number one war of Trump 2.0 is against BRICS. And he said it himself, even though he doesn't even know what BRICS mean. because in his mind, Bricks is this nefarious evil organization who wants to ditch the U.S. dollar. He still has not understand what Bricks are doing, which is working on different alternative payment systems,

which don't have to rely on the dollar. What is Bricks pay? Exactly. Bricks pay is one of them. For instance, they even have an app. Bricks pay, they came to. an agreement about Bricks Pay at the summit in Kazan, the Brick Summit in Kazan in October 2004.

We were there. We saw that happening. We were talking to the people at the Bricks Business Council who actually established the framework. And they said, look, let's try some of these mechanisms, including this one, Bricks Pay. You can have an app. It links to your credit card.

So you can use this app to pay for anything you want, anywhere, if you are a BRICS member, of course. But they are serious problems. Because BRICs pay itself, the mechanism, they say, look, we are not against the dollar. We are offering an alternative parallel system to Visa, MasterCard, SWIFT, and the US dollar. But from the point of view of some of the top BRICs, and especially the BRICs under sanctions, which is the case of Russia and Iran, this is a mechanism to, of course, slowly but surely, bypass the US dollar. So this means that Iranian credit cards and Russian credit cards should be allowed to be included in the BRICSPA mechanism.

And so far, that's not the case. So they still have a long way to go. But the most important elements, and this is something that I put in one of my calls, is that Reserve Bank of India totally likes the idea of BRICS pay because they want to present this as a BRICS mechanism in the summit in India later this year. India is the host of BRICS this year. So the Indians are getting excellent advice from the Russians about that because this system was perfected in Russia, first of all. But the Indians are in. And obviously they have to be very careful not to market bricks pay as a $90

mechanism. And in fact, it will not be. It's voluntary. If you want to have an account and you want to use your own currency, let's say Brazilian reales, for instance, it's perfect. The Western press is filled with rumors. I think it's probably nonsense today that the Russians are surprising everybody. at Abu Dhabi, by their flexibility on Ukraine seeding territory.

Can Putin possibly back down from this demand and expect to stay as the president of Russia after all they've been through? Absolutely, Judge. This is a spin. This is, well, the U.S. mainstream media, they are masters of spin. They are probably the best in the world in this department. It's absolutely politically impossible for Putin to back down from every scene that he has been stating for at least a year and a half in detail in terms of the territories that are part of the Russian Federation, not to mention Crimea, the four territories not to mention Crimea. and no Ukraine in NATO, Ukraine in the EU is not a big deal,

the buffer zone or demilitarized zone, which have to be discussed in detail, with no Western peacekeepers, of course. This is, and from the point of view of the Kremlin, from the point of view of Russian public opinion, this is a done deal. It's that or the war continues until the year of 5,000. So is the war going to end in the battlefield or on a conference room?

Battlefield. And now this is being proclaimed, I would say. And it's not such a heavy term in this case. Even by Lavrov himself, the number one diplomat on the planet, he's saying, the SMO will be decided in the battlefield. Wow. So look at what Chris found for you. of ghost.

He's on the ghost. No, I've never seen anything like this. This thing travels on the surface and beneath the surface. Absolutely correct. Yes, that's it. So can you imagine these things roaming around the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman? Wow. And do they have offensive weaponry?

Yeah, apparently, let me just check, Judge. Please give me a second. Yes, they are armed with two 324 millimeter light torpedoes. These are very effective against the medium-sized warships. And of course, let's say the escorts of the USS Abraham Lincoln, for instance. Wow. Now, these are Russian boats, not American. Or excuse me, these are Iranian boats, not America.

These are Iranian, a judge. They have, it's very hard to explain, especially to a Western audience, that a country under sanctions for 43, 44 years, they have developed an extremely sophisticated military industry with indigenous solutions by, scientists and engineers, Iranian scientists and engineers. Everything from this ghost fella all the way to the mega hypersonics, which are almost on the same level of the Russian hypersonic missiles.

Everything indigenously developed in Iran. Yes, Catamaran warship is a nice way of putting it. But both is much more fun, is that. Yeah, a ghost boat is a very enticing name. Last question. Will the Iranians close the Straits of Hormuz if the Americans attack Tehran? This is very, very important, Judge. I opened one of my columns with that, and I posted on Acts about it,

because we finally got confirmation that the parliament, the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, authorized the strait of Ormuse to be blocked. But the final decision, this is not the final decision. This is binding. This means that if the order comes from the supreme leader and from the IRGC, they can close the strait any time they want, and this is constitutionally correct. This is very, very important.

This means that they are ready to close the strait, if, let's say, even if they sense that they're going to be attacked, because they know exactly what that means. And many of us who have been writing about that for years, I'm one of them, but Zoltan Poznar, when he was at the Credit Suisse, he wrote about that as well. Other analysts who were in touch with Goldman Sachs experts, Goldman Sachs, just to give an idea, by 2017-18, more or less, they had already. already a projection that if the strain of Hormuz is closed, before, during or after the beginning of a naval war, the barrel of oil could shoot up to $700 a barrel practically in a matter of days. And this is not only the $700, a barrel issue, is the fact that the pyramid of derivatives, of the global economy would instantly collapse completely.

And this according to Goldman Sachs derivatives experts. And then there was an enormous discussion that's still rolling about how many, what's the size of this pyramid? It's in the quadrillions of dollars. It's not even, yeah, the original number by the Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland was 700 trillion.

This figures from, well, yeah, seven or eight years ago. And then afterwards, if you talk to Persian Gulf traders and some of them love to talk off the record, they say, look, it's in the quadrillions now. And we know that if this happens, the global economy can, everything can collapse in a matter of a week or 10 days. So the Iranians know about that as all. And I'm sure people in the Atlantis sphere, also know about that. So the question, in fact, is, if this information arrives to Trump's desk,

will he consider backing off a little bit and trying at least a dialogue with mutual respect with Iran, which is with Iran and foreign minister, Arachi just said this week, yes, we are open to dialogue. As long as it, there's mutual respect. Or Trump is ready to go down in history. as the guy who will destroy the global economy. That's the question. Wow. Fascinating stuff. Fascinating stuff. I don't know if Trump will even take into account the ramifications of an attack.

He's so beholden to his Zionist overlords. Exactly. And that's the... We are all hostages of this decision, Judge, all over the world, the global north and the global south, by an individual that has a lot of skeletons in his closet. Yes. Where are you off to next, Pepe?

China, tomorrow. So we're going to talk from China next to you. I hope we can organize a conversation. You got it. You got to travel well, travel safely, my friend. We'll look forward to seeing you from China. All the best. Thank you so much, Judge.

Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Well, the end of a long and fruitful day. Tomorrow, Friday, at the end of the day. and the end of the week for you, our Intelligence Community Roundtable with Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern. I look forward to it.

I hope you do as well. Thank you for watching. Justice Napolitano for judging Freedom.