Judging Freedom - Pepe Escobar: Yemen Wins by a Landslide!

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

Pepe Escobar: Yemen Wins by a Landslide!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

you Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, May 8th, 2025. Joining us now from Moscow, back to Midnight in Moscow, Pepe Escobar. Pepe, it's a pleasure. Thank you for accommodating my schedule. You just flew in from Tehran and I have questions to ask you about your interview of an Iranian general and questions to ask you about the tempo of things in Moscow.

But before we do, what did the United States gain by bombing Yemen? One of the greatest humiliations in the military history of the United States, I'm really sad to tell you that. This is the short version. War without planning against a known adversary, which was basically trying to protect, in their own words, their brothers and sisters in Palestine. You don't mess with Yemen. These people in Washington, come on, get a history book, study for 10 minutes.

You will never win a war against Yemeni warriors, period. And you have just been humiliated. When I was there a few weeks ago, one of the members of the high political council, he told me, look, we still have our own cards on the table. We haven't shown everything. Now after three have destroyed F 18s and nobody knows exactly what happened to USS Truman, we have the circus ringmaster saying they were bagging for a ceasefire. No, no, you, Mr. President, bagged for a ceasefire

and tried to get away of a war that you never even thought about. When Trump boasted in the Oval Office that the Houthis capitulated, you emailed me saying it's quite the opposite, the Houthis won in a landslide. What did you mean? Well, can you imagine numbers themselves? This often repeated number and estimate that Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world. It's the richest in history and spirituality. It's the richest in moral clarity, and it's one of the more powerful militarily as well.

They had help, of course course from Russia, Iran and China directly and indirectly, but their military accomplishments are their own. So, and on top of that, they know exactly how to use their military power. They did not attack anybody. What they did was to protect Palestinians their own way. And the whole, the lands of Islam as a whole supported Yemen from the beginning and most of the global

south as well. And now they have forced the mightiest armada in the history of the universe, to back down. This is beyond historic. Larry Johnson, a good friend of ours, who does the research, says the United States spent over a billion dollars, this is counting the three F-16s, which go from 70 to 80 million each, spent over a billion dollars.

Pete Hegseth was boasting about the success of doing it. Larry's right, Hegseth is wrong, and the president was humiliated. Absolutely. And it didn't have to be this way, Judge. He was forced to... Let's humiliate Yemen. No. Now he's humiliated by Yemen in front of the whole planet. You didn't have to live this way. This is bad planning, bad management, and bad decisions. What did you observe or conclude in your time in Tehran about Iran's preparedness, willingness, and ability to resist an onslaught,

whether it comes from Israel alone or Israel and the United States. And the trip hasn't finished yet, George. All right, no, you're taking like two days from Tehran up to Moscow, so you can be there for the celebrations tomorrow, and tomorrow they're all ready, and then you're going back to Tehran. Exactly, but answering your question, there were different instances. We had some outstanding conversations with Iranian analysts,

with diplomats, with academics. We had a roundtable, for instance, that started at one of the Tehran's universities that started as US-Iran relations. And after half an hour, it became a debate about the new great game that is being played all over in the geopolitical chessboard. And of course, there was that by now relatively well-known incident. We were visiting the IRGC Aerospace Museum and then I found my opening. There was a brigadier general that was explaining military matters to us. So I said, okay, I have

to ask him directly. And I did. What's going to happen or what did happen or what's going to happen with Operation True Promise 3? His answer was extraordinary. It was very diplomatic. He said, look, basically, he said, I'm not making decisions. But look, he's a brigadier general at the IRGC. So he knows everything about their political and military decisions so he answered in detail and I'm sure Chris has the video we do cut number six this is a very serious question please translate it correctly

one and two were seen as a sign of weakness no please please operation through promise three was interpreted in Tel Aviv and in Washington as a sign of weakness. Why it was postponed? We want to know the real reason because this information is essential to be disseminated in the West. Please, translate it correctly. He says that our confrontation with the US and Israeli regime has not been new and it

will never finish in a short destination. And he says that the tactics that we are going to use in this operation, it is exactly based on our decision. Not nothing from outside, no impression, no interruption, can have any impression or effect in this decision and in this operation and tactics. We are the soldiers of our leader. He says that we are soldiers of the leader of the Islamic Revolution.

We will never hesitate, we will never postpone, we will never haste. And the leader has also said that at the right time this operation will take place. Except for the things that others are doing. Anything outside is just merely a propaganda that it is being made from outside. And we, as it has been shown so far, we have never taken any step backward and we

will never take a step back from our red lines. So this is very important the operation is ready to go they are just waiting for the right moment is that it? He says that I am not in charge of that but whenever it is the right time the armed forces and IRGC will be announced and we will carry it and we will make it take place. Thank you. We will keep the red line in place.

Since 100 persons, we will make our red lines. We will never take a step back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's a great interview. And before I ask you to extrapolate, I'm smiling because the last

time I saw somebody yelling at an interpreter to interpret properly was me in a courtroom where the interpreters have a tendency to summarize rather than to translate literally and you wanted, as I did at the time, a literal translation. All right. Who was he and what was that all about? Well, he is in charge of this very sophisticated aerospace museum outside of Iran By the IRGC over there. We saw all the different models of Shaheed drones, for instance. We saw different ballistic missiles including the latest FATA missile which was

unveiled less than two years ago. So it is very very impressive. But of course we wanted to get down to business and that's why the first minute that we had relatively free I said no I have to ask him now because we won't have any chance Before that judge I had already asked my whole skin you get us a meeting with a Top high ranking our RGC general. They said look we are trying but it's very very you just stumbled upon him in the museum No, we did he made a presentation to us before judge at a sort of briefing room talking about the history of basically their ballistic missile program which you and our

audience you very well know that the Americans try to introduce this into the nuclear negotiations ever since John Kerry and Zarif were trying to set up the first JCPOA in Vienna 10 years ago. So that was very helpful. But I was sensing that it would be very hard for us to talk directly to an IRGC general. I'm sorry. So I took my chance. I RGC general, I'm sorry. So I took my chance. What was promise three about which you and he were speaking? What was or is that?

A response to the latest Israeli attack on Iran. Remember that True Promise one and two stunned not only Israel, but the Pentagon and the US military establishment. And they decided to hold on to promise three. And he explained that this is not his translator. By the way, he was a bit terrified later on on X, a Farsi speaking girl, very, very smart.

She sent her own translator to the, these images were shot by an Iraqi American blogger, a very, very, very cool guy. And then she sent him her own translation of what the Brigadier General said. It's much more nuanced and diplomatic, in fact. He's still saying the same thing. It's ready to go. We decide when, but it will go. Wow. Let me change the subject slightly. Here's the breaking news now

in Haaretz. US President Donald Trump has grown tired of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stalling in the negotiations with Hamas. The Trump administration cut out the Israeli government from the talks and spoke directly with Hamas. Now they are also trying to cut out the middleman and speak directly to the Israeli public. What does this tell you, my dear friend? Judge, the president wants some sort of deal, any deal anywhere. That's why he was so ebullient, selling a sort of non-deal with Ansarala in Yemen. Of course, he cannot do the same thing vis-a-vis the war provoked and weaponized by the US in Ukrainian soil against Russia. It's crazy because he's a new president trying to be

the mediator of a war that his own superpower started. In itself, this is Kafka, total Kafka territory. And of course with Hamas and with Israel, even under immense pressure by the Zionist lobby, Trump wants some sort of deal that he can sell to American public opinion and to global public opinion, not necessarily to the benefit of the Palestinians because now the new Israeli government policy

is mass starvation. It's not straight up genocide as it was so far. And this, he has to know, even being Trump, doesn't pay attention to anybody except himself, mega narcissus, he has to know that for the whole world, this won't stand. So there is the absolute necessity of some sort of deal involving Hamas of course and breaking Let's say they carefully calibrated dementia of the government in Tel Aviv Well the government in Tel Aviv announced that it's going to invade and occupy

Gaza John Mearsheimer says that's an impossibility But a lot of people will die as die on both sides as they try it. Absolutely, John is absolutely correct. And the Iranians have a very similar analysis as well. This is an extremely complicated discussion in Iran, Judge, in Tehran with very well informed people. To what extent actual practical Iranian help goes to prevent, let's say, and I'm going to be very blunt here, a final solution against Gaza and the Palestinians. Wow. There's an enormous open debate in Tehran about it. We discussed this at university, you know, including PhD students, ultra-sharp questions,

but there is no consensus. And the Iranians know that there's a limit, that they can help up to a certain limit, and it's up to Palestinian resistance in itself, of course. And the whole broader team of the Axis of Resistance, we spent practically the whole week talking about Axis of Resistance every day. And Iran now, they have, I wouldn't say a more existential problem. But they do have an existential problem

of the possibility of a joint US-Is Israel attack against Iran within the next few months. So they are fully concentrated on it. Hmm I want to switch gears because I know You're in Moscow and I know tomorrow's a day of great celebration Here is a brief summary of a joint press conference between President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi. I think they had this press conference while you were traveling. President Putin summarized their relations together as following. Relations between Russia and China have reached their highest level in history. Large Chinese manufacturers of microelectronics, automobiles and household appliances

will increase their presence in the Russian market. Russia and China have built a reliable system of mutual trade protected from the current global situation. All foreign trade transactions between Moscow and Beijing are carried out in national currencies. President Putin announced plans to significantly increase bilateral trade between Russia and China by 2030. Here's the last one.

Russia and China suffered the greatest losses in World War II and are now closer to each other than they have ever been. Are you surprised at any of this? Of course not, Judge. This is what's gonna... what happened today, exactly. When they started talking, I was on my way from the airport to my place in Moscow. So that's the kind of entrance or arrival, right? I had to be here this day, today and tomorrow, So that's the kind of entrance or arrival, right?

I had to be here this day, today and tomorrow, because this is way beyond historic for two reasons. And they are interconnected. Number one is the victory against Nazism and fascism 80 years ago, where the Soviet Union were the number one actor. Whatever the West, the collective friend. Can I just stop you for a minute and tell you the names of two people who agree with everything you just said.

One is Winston Churchill and the other is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Thank you, Judge. Thank you, Judge. We don't need anything else, right? But... Except that President Trump wants to reinvent his three-minute and antagonize the Russians needlessly, but it has. Exactly. On the same level of the leadership in the European Union and European Commission. For them, what happened in 1945 never existed, in fact. So this is where we are in terms of the

the moral devastation of the fragmented West. So this is reason number one for me now. Just to give you an idea, just now it's a 10 minutes to midnight in Moscow. Everybody is asleep. There is radio silence everywhere. Tomorrow even mobile internet will be cut off because there is a strong possibility of a drone attack during the parade. They are taking no chances here. I was told this morning that this is the reddest red line in Russia in decades. So it's very very very very serious. So this is reason number one. Reason number two is what happened this morning at the Kremlin when Xi Jinping came to visit Putin. This was the first of their meetings. They have another one. There was a gala dinner tonight that was of course more relaxed, but tomorrow and the day after they're going to have another long meeting.

This one today was picking up from their meeting two years ago. I'm sure our audience remembers very well when C at the end, when Putin was taking C out of the crowd, Xi Jinping said, we are facing changes that we have not seen in a hundred years and we are at the forefront. We are driving them and Putin said, you're absolutely right. So they're picking up. This is where they are at the moment. These are the two big powers driving the changes. You know, I've been saying this for weeks. It would have been wonderful if President Trump had flown to Moscow, showed up at the victory parade, congratulated the Russians and then stayed for a week and negotiated

with Xi and Modi and Putin for the grand political, geopolitical and economic reset between the great powers. But it doesn't appear as though that's going to, unless he's secretly flying to Moscow now, it doesn't appear that that's going to happen. You're absolutely right, Judge. This would have been the new Yalta. And many of us independents in the US and across the global South, we were expecting, okay, this has to happen. It's the only chance to have a reset of international relations and the grand chessboard and going towards a more rational territory.

Unfortunately, President Trump didn't pick up. It was up to him to pick up the opportunity. Chris, go ahead. No, please, please continue, Pepe. My apologies. So, the fact that they met today, picking up on the changes that never happened in this past 100 years. They are forging this new system of international relations. They are at the driver's seat. It's not by accident that we have 20-something

leaders from all across the global South here. Very important, including Captain Ibrahim Traoré from Burkina Faso, who is the great African leader nowadays, including President Lula from Brazil. I'm very happy that Lula is here, because there is a chemistry between, a personal chemistry, putting respects Lula a lot. Putting those, so the Global South is here, and they're listening to the true,

the two superpowers in the driver's seat. Chris, can you put up the full screen from Dmitry Medvedev? Russia on Trump's World War II claim from former president and deputy national security chair Medvedev. Our people sacrificed 27 million lives of their sons and daughters in the name of destroying accursed fascism. Therefore, Victory Day, that's tomorrow tomorrow is ours and it is May 9. So it was, so it is, so it will always be. Well, I hope you have a great time celebrating. If you come across Ray McGovern, who's there with you, give him a hug. I'm trying to stay on his stage, Judge.

Chris may know and he can give you that information after we get off air, but give him a hug and a kiss and I want a selfie of the two of you together and we'll post it. Thank you, safe travels, God bless you. Wherever you're going to be in a week, we'll see you next week. Yes, and from Iran it's very complicated. I tried earlier this week and it didn't work. All right, we'll see you next week. Thank you, my friend. Coming up tomorrow at four o'clock in the afternoon, Ray McGovern from Moscow, Larry Johnson from the States, the Intelligence Community Roundtable and if we can find him after the Intelligence Community Roundtable, Max Blumenthal. Jonathan Paul Towner for Judging Freedom. You