Judging Freedom - Prof. Mohammad Marandi : China Will Long Be With Iran

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Prof. Mohammad Marandi : China Will Long Be With IranSee 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? 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 Friday August 28th 2006 professor Muhammad and Mirandi, our dear friend, friend of the show, personal friend of mine, regular correspondent for us, joins us live from Tehran. Muhammad, always a pleasure. A little bit off the wall. Before we get to the latest on Iran, does the government of Iran have its eye on the events

in Ukraine at all? Very much so. Thank you, Judge. It's always a great honor being on the show, of course. Yes, very much. Iranians and the Russians, I believe, are actually coordinating a lot more than people seem to recognize. And I think that the Iranians are looking very carefully at what's going on in Ukraine, and the Russians look very carefully at what goes on in Southwest Asia and West Asia.

And the fact that the Russians are on the offensive, and it seems from Tehran that contrary to what we're often hearing in the Western media, Ukraine is in serious trouble, that works well for Iran because it also helps Iran plan and organize its actions with regards to the United States, the Israeli regime, and adding pressure to its adversaries in the region. Well, all right. Has the war in Iran reached the stalemate? That's a difficult question. It depends on who one asks. I think that it's both sides are trying to put as much pressure on the other. And it's a waiting game of sorts. But I do think that the possibility for escalation is very high. I think Trump is, and I cannot say out of personal knowledge. But I think that Trump is exaggeration. the amount of oil that actually leaves the through the Strait of Hormoz for the election

and for election purposes. And the Iranians, I think they are planning to keep the pressure, the economic pressure on the United States as much as possible in the hope that Trump does poorly in the elections. Although the Iranians are exporting oil, they don't declare it openly, and iran is allowing friendly countries like iraq which didn't participate in the war to export its oil and um on the other side of the persian gulf there are small ships that um that take fuel that take oil from one side of the straight to the other and they're not large ships so it's a very expensive operation uh a costly operation but also an operation that does not allow for a huge amount of oil to get through the strait.

So I do think that the Iranian numbers are more accurate than the American numbers. Wow. Are the Pakistanis continuing to be the mediators? Are they passing messages from the Americans to the Iranians, from the Iranians, to the Americans, as far as you can tell? or is there no effective or meaningful communication going on between the two combatants? And that's a long-winded question. I apologize for it. So take the ball and room with it as you see fit.

Are the Amani's involved as mediators as well? Yes, yes. And if you add the Doha, yes as well. All of them have brought messages from the United States. States and one important point that I think people rarely acknowledge is the fact that Oman has an ally of the United States and as a country that has been threatened twice by Trump with death and destruction the last time of course he used the the word SHIT he'll bond them to so-and-so Oman has made progress with Iran on the management of the straight and which includes taking fees and which includes a joint cooperation and

oman is doing this with u.s consent if the united states did not want these negotiations to take place if they didn't if they wanted to prevent progress from taking place they would have threatened oman and oman would have pulled back so the very fact that oman has come to an agreement with Iran shows that what is going on behind the scenes is not the same as what we're hearing in the media and what we're hearing from the White House. All right, Chris, can you put the map back that showed that sort of line between that broken line between the two sides? There you go.

So does that line, that purple line in the middle of the map of the Strait of Hormuz, pretty much the top part is Iranian territory, the bottom part is Omani, or do I have that in reverse? I don't know if it's that exact line, but yes, to the north, at the top of the screen, that's Iranian territory, those Iranian islands, that's fish, that large island is Peshma Island, and to the south is Oman. And then to the south of Oman, on its two sides, there's the United Arab Emirates. So this small part of Oman is separate from the bulk of the country. The country is in two pieces.

This small piece is in the strait. That's why Iran negotiates with Oman. And what the emerurgis are doing is that they transport some oil from the left-hand side of the screen over Oman under that purple line to the right side of the screen. So small ships take oil from large tankers, cross the straight, and then they give them back. Other tankers, super tankers are outside waiting for them. They fill up those tankers. So each tanker, you can imagine, a large number of small ships have to go back and forth to fill those tankers. All right.

Who, I guess it is clear from what you've just said that the United States, this not control the state the state of or moose that it is controlled jointly and amicably by the umanis and the iranians yes that is pretty clear and even those small ships that go back and forth all the time to transport oil they are tolerated by iran these are parts of different many agreements that Iran has with countries in the Persian Gulf. So the Iranians and, for example, the Emirates, they have a lot of interest, even though the two sides have been hostile towards each other. The Emirates have helped the United States attack Iran.

Iran is, of course, struck back. But the two sides do cooperate in economic areas. So those small boats that you see that go across the Strait of Hormoz, they are Emirati. And these are not privately owned force. This is a government company, or I think maybe two government companies, I'm not quite sure, which carry out this operation. And for the most part, it's tolerated by Iran.

And then, on the other hand, the Emirates do things for Iran. This is what we hear in the West about who controls Hormuz. This is ridiculous, but this is what we hear. cut number 18. On the economic fury and all the pressure that he can bring to bear. And we know that Iran can't handle it. Ultimately, their economy is in a spiral. They also know that we control the Strait of Hormuz, that our blockade is ironclad,

and that oil is flowing through ultimately. And you've seen some of the numbers. Iran can't run anything through. We can. The world economy realizes that. And so they made a big bet on controlling it, and they can't. Is any of that even remotely true? Well, you know, if a company in the United States, let's say Microsoft or anyone else,

if every day they say that, look, our finances are in order, we're in good shape. And they say it every single day, you can be pretty sure that something's wrong and that their finances have serious problems. The very fact that he keeps saying this, Trump keeps saying it, if it's open, then they don't have to say it all the time. But the reality is that no, bare little oil is getting through. And that oil that gets through, for the most part, has Iran's permission, whether it's a major tanker or a super tanker or one of these small ships. They have Iranian consent. Some of them do get through without Iranian consent, but that's not large in number.

And then on the other hand, you have the Babul Mandab straight at the bottom left-hand side of the screen, where Saudi shipping has serious problems, ships rarely go through, and that's why Saudi oil exports from the Red Sea have declined, the body of water to the north, to the top of the screen. They've declined, and also has become much more expensive because insurance companies demand much more money, and shipping companies, except for state, the Saudi state or own company demand more money and also the ships have to go all around the African continent. So it's a it's a much more expensive process. In general, the situation is not ideal at all for Trump.

And I think, although Iran would never say it, I think that this is going to be permanent, but especially until the U.S. elections, I think the Iranians would like to see Trump face more economic uncertainty and difficult. and the Iranians are carefully monitoring the bond market, the Japanese currency, and the other key aspects of the U.S. economy. Back to Secretary Hegseth. Where is the United States Navy? Is it still 600 nautical miles away from the actual straight?

Yes. They are no closer than they were before. they are fearful of Iranian missiles, although the Iranians say that they have missiles that they can strike them from where they are right now. My belief and my understanding is that the Iranians do not want to strike U.S. ships. They have hit two or three American naval ships near the Strait of Hormoz during the fighting with drones, not with missiles. They hit them with drones to cause sort of minimal damage, but not to sink them. And I think striking naval ships is something that the Iranians will only consider if the war escalates further beyond a certain point. Got it, got it.

Our mutual friend and colleague Pepe Escobar reports that President Trump, I'm going to use Pepe's one. word is daily every day begging Field Marshal Munir for a breakthrough. Now Field Marshal Munir is the head of the army in Pakistan, arguably a more powerful position than Prime Minister. But Trump calls him on the phone, according to Pepe, and Pepe, along with our colleague Larry Johnson, have sources in Pakistani intel. Trump is looking for. a breakthrough an exit that doesn't look like an exit what do the Iranians think about that well the messages that do come to Iran from Pakistan from Oman from Qatar although there may be others that I don't know of more or less are the same

and that he is seeking some sort of solution where which won't make him look humiliated. But the Iranians are saying nothing less than the full implementation of the MOU is acceptable. That is the agreement that we had. That is what he signed. And Article 1 of that means that the Israeli regime must withdraw from Lebanon and end the war. It must end the genocide in Gaza. And of course, Trump never implemented the MOU at all. And he was in full violation. Western media likes to say that it was the Iranians who violated them. But it was the exact opposite. The United States never handed over Iran stolen assets.

They never removed the oil sanctions for more than a week. After a week, they revived them. They also continued to impose new sanctions, which was a violation of the deal. They continued to threaten Iran, which was a violation of the deal. And most importantly, while they were in violation of the deal, of all the other articles then trump established this corridor through the strait of hormones which was in violation of article five iran was supposed to manage it till normalization but trump wanted to undermine iran's position through the through the m o you rather than because he couldn't do it in

war and he couldn't do it in the first siege so the iranians are saying you sign this piece of paper and you have to implement it and that's that's why there's there's no progress but again i'm not When we say there's no progress, that is true at one level. But then on the other, when we do see the United States allowing Oman to make progress with Iran for the future about the joint management of the strait, which includes taking fees, then it's, I think it's, we see it's more complicated than what it seems on the surface. Are both sides rearming during this interregnum, this period of relative ceasefire? Yes, the Iranians are rearming very swiftly. For the first time, I think, I'm not sure, but I think for the first time we saw footage of an underground missile factory in Iran. So we know that Iran, we've seen multiple missile underground missile bases, we've seen underground drone bases, we've seen underground naval bases for speedboats and underground bases where they keep anti-aircraft systems and so on.

But we've never actually seen footage of underground factories where they actually build those missiles, where they actually have R&D for developing new missiles and better technology. We saw that three or four days ago, and the Iranians are expanding their underground missile bases and underground drone bases. They're developing new missiles and more missiles with greater precision and maneuverability. And the Iranians have an advantage because for them it is easier building these missiles than it is for the Americans to build their own missiles and especially build anti-aircraft, the missile systems or anti-air. or anti-missile missile missile systems as we all know the united states it has critical shortages and it's very expensive and very slow in developing building these systems so iran can build these at industrial pace similar to like russia when it comes to their missile program and drone program but the americans they have much greater challenges so at least for now the longer this

takes, the longer we have quiet on the front, the more to the advantage it is for the Iranians. Wow. I mean, does Iran expect that the violent part of the war, what they call the kinetic part of the war, will resume once the U.S. elections are over? That's only two months away. I think that is something that the Iranians believe is quite likely. Just last night, General Rezae, the chair of the Supreme National Security Council, had an interview with Al-Mannar TV. Al-Minnar TV is closely affiliated to the resistance in Lebanon. And in that interview, he said, sooner or later, we are going to send Netanyahu to hell. So, and by the way, in that interview, he said that this, the claims that Iran was trying to kill Trump's son is nonsense and, and that he's, he also said that Iran is not doing anything to carry out an attack on Trump.

But he did say that sooner or later we're going to send Netanyahu to hell. So obviously they must be accepting some sort of violence in the future for them to be able to do such a thing. Wow. The sanctions, well, by the way, this that we're posting now was posted by President Trump, new U.S. territory straight of Hormuz. Now, according to the Supreme Court of the United States, anyone born? The U.S. territory is an American citizen who can vote. I'm sure he didn't think of that.

He hated that birthright decision. Of course, I'm sure he didn't think of that when he posted that absurd graphic, claiming that the United States owns the Strait of Rome. It was a claim that he has made verbally a couple of times. Let's go to his economy-wrecking, bank-wrecking, nonsensical secretary of the Treasury. I mean, does Scott Bessent really think he can intimidate Chinese banks out of funding Iranian businesses? Definitely not.

But, you know, Judge, that the problem is that what the United States has been doing for the last six months is that it has been telling the world, look how weak we are. Because when Hexeth for the last six months has been saying, we've destroyed the Air Force, their Navy, all of their capabilities and their own forces and Iran is still standing, that is telling the world that we are much weaker than you thought. And when the Treasury Department regularly says on a daily basis now that Iran is collapsing, And, you know, it's been a few days since D-Day. Every day that goes by, it weakens the United States as its image as all-powerful when it comes to being able to strangle countries through sanctions and through economic warfare.

So he now, as he, when he tweets and when he speaks, he's sounding. increasingly like heggsett and then after a few weeks when iran has not collapsed uh of course iran has serious economic problems we have inflation we have shortages and all that but when iran hasn't collapse then i think that is going to cause countries across the world to uh to be more assertive when uh when confronting u.s threats whether they're economic or political or military. But don't Besant and his team understand the unshakable economic and geopolitical relationship between Iran and China?

And do they really think that they can disturb this? I mean, it is a violation of Chinese law for a Chinese bank voluntarily to comply with an American sanction. I would imagine he does, but there are many things that are being done by the United States that are beyond my comprehension. I mean, for example, Judge, during the war, the Americans repeatedly would repeatedly bomb Iranian missile bases, day and night. Some of them really, you know, heavy bombing.

And to get these missile bases were continuing to function. when some of my when i was sometimes asking friends who who were more knowledgeable what's going on they said no these bases are all safe and i'm saying i would say are you sure with them why they why they bomb them uh all the time if it's useless and he said i don't know we don't know either so the united states has been doing a lot of ridiculous things uh during the past six months against iran and more than the past six months i think he knows but perhaps uh he's promised Trump or Trump is demanding that he bring down the Iranians, and he's saying, I'll do as you say. But at the end of the day, it's not going to work.

Maybe in a few weeks, you'll see some protests here and there because of the shortage of, I don't know, bread or a shortage of meat or the inflation of something somewhere. I mean, inflation here. But that's not going to bring down the government. And what the Iranians are going to do in response is the same thing. They're going to weaken the U.S. economy. They're going to increase the shortages of helium and sulfur and oil and other products, petrochemical and refined products from the Arabian Peninsula. And ultimately, it's going to reflect on, it's going to cause misery for Trump in the election.

is going to cause economic pain at home. And countries across the world are going to blame Trump and Netanyahu for their own misery. So they can hurt Iran, but it's only useful to them. I mean, it's a crime against humanity what they're doing because they're targeting civilians and they want to make civilians suffer. But that aside, it's only successful if this is not a double-edged sword. If you're going to impose these suffering on Iranians and you're not suffering. in return, okay, well, it may be evil, but you may succeed.

But if you are also bringing about suffering to your own side, then I think that is the, that is extremely foolish. Muhammad Mirandi, professor, my dear friend, a great conversation, as always. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend. I'm traveling next week, but we'll find a way for us to hook up and have our weekly conversation. It's so fruitful, and I know the viewers deeply enjoy and appreciate it. Thank you for everything.

Stay safe. Thank you, Judge. It's always an honor, and I hope you have a very safe and good journey. Thank you. Coming up later today, the end of the day, the end of the week, almost the end of the month, the Intelligence Community Roundtable, 4 o'clock this afternoon, Larry Johnson and Scott Ritter. They each have very interesting observations on why the head of the Central and intelligence agency spent four hours in the Kremlin.

The Intelligence Community Roundtable today at 4 o'clock. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.