Piers Morgan Uncensored - “Will End In DISASTER!” Will Trump Strike Iran? With Mohammad Marandi & Mike Huckabee

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

A lot has happened in the world since Piers Morgan Uncensored took a break; most recently and notably, President Trump ordering air strikes on Islamists in Nigeria and Syria, sending the US Delta Forc...e to seize Venezuelan president Maduro and taking control of the regime via video link, while a naval armada lurks in the Caribbean Sea. He’s also threatened to seize Greenland from Denmark, one way or another - and has sent a warning to Mexican cartels and Iran. Piers thinks Trump is responding to the call of the Iranian people - but it’s only natural to worry about what might happen next. He speaks to US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, professor at Tehran University and regime supporter, Mohammad Marandi and British-Iranian actor, Omid Djalili. We’re also joined by our first Uncensored panel of 2026; The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur, Iran-born former Canadian MP, Goldie Ghamari, journalist and host of ‘The Chuck Todd Cast’, Chuck Todd and former US Navy Seal, Rob O’Neill. Piers Morgan Uncensored is proudly independent and supported by: Melania: Step inside the 20 days before history is made—watch MELANIA, only in theaters January 30; get your tickets now! Veracity Selfcare: Visit https://VeracitySelfCare.co and use code PIERS for up to 45% off your order! Oxford Natural: To watch their full stories, scan the QR code on your screen or visit https://oxfordnatural.com/piers/ to get 70% off your first order when you use code PIERS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:01 We're looking at it very seriously. The military is looking at it. And we're looking at some very strong options. Does American hell look like? All options are on the table. Israel wants regime change in Iran. They wanted it for 20 years. Everything he just said to you was propaganda for Israel.
Starting point is 00:00:20 I let you speak your garbage jihadi Islamist propaganda. You should know your native language. You do not. You do not get to talk over me. Piz, this is serious. The estimates are bad. between 2,000 to 12,000 people being killed in two days. And the people are still coming out on the streets.
Starting point is 00:00:38 If Trump carries out an attack on Iran, the Iranian retaliation will be massive. I was here listening. I wanted to tear my own arm off so I could have something to throw at the screen. He's obviously never been punched in the face. History will remember your lion's fears. In the short time since our last show, President Trump has ordered airstrikes on Islamists in Nigeria and Syria.
Starting point is 00:01:03 He sent the US Delta force to seize Venezuelan President Maduro in a stunning overnight raid and he's out controlling the regime by video link while a naval armada lurks in the Caribbean Sea. He threatened to seize Greenland from Denmark one way or another. Mexican cartels, he says, could be bombed too. A most consequential of all, Iran is now on notice. Hundreds, if not thousands of Iranians have been killed in the past week for protesting against the Islamic regime. Today the president's posted cryptically that, help is on its way.
Starting point is 00:01:35 I don't know. They're starting to what it looks like, and there seem to be some people killed that aren't supposed to be killed. These are violent. If you call them leaders, I don't know if their leaders are just a, they rule through violence. But we're looking at it very seriously. The military is looking at it. And we're looking at some very strong options.
Starting point is 00:01:58 Well, the mullahs have run Iran as an Islamic dictatorship for almost 50 years. dissent is punished by death. Women are beaten for not covering their faces. Minorities are denied housing and services. There's little dispute about any of this because the Iranian government wants its own people to know about it. Every popular uprising to date has been beaten down by one of the most formidable and ruthless security services in the world.
Starting point is 00:02:21 Bodies are piled high as a warning and eventually the protesters go home. So why will this time be any different? Well, Iran's exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, says the difference is Trump. And I think we have some serious leaders that understand what is necessary, that understand the ask of the Iranian people, and are responding to that. I think President Trump is responding to the call that the Iranian people have. The Iranian people have heard his words.
Starting point is 00:02:51 They are naming streets after him in Iran. There's a difference. They know he's no Barack Obama or Joe Biden. And that's why they do have... a higher expectation. Well, there's no sane argument that the Iranian regime is good for the Iranian people, but you don't need to be an apologist for the Mullers to worry about what happens next. A regime has spent half a century embedding itself in every community on every street corner
Starting point is 00:03:16 isn't going to just vanish into thin air. And many sympathetic Americans want the president to focus on rebuilding their nation, not anybody else's. Only Trump knows what he'll do next, but right now, peace through strength, it's starting to look like a lot like, well, the strength, and he wants the eye taller to know about it. Well, we start this debate by talking to someone close to President Trump, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.
Starting point is 00:03:40 Mike Huckabee, great to have you back on Uncensored. Thanks, Pierce. Great to be back with you. So much going on in this year, and it's only, what, two weeks old. As we are about to talk, Donald Trump has posted to his truth social platform in the last few minutes, Iranian patriots, keep protesting, take over your institutions, save the names of the killers and abusers, they will pay a big price. I've cancelled all meetings with Iranian officials until the
Starting point is 00:04:09 senseless killing of protesters stops, help is on its way. Miga, make Iran great again, President Donald J. Trump. First of all, your reaction to that post. What should we read into this? Well, I think President Trump is monitoring this situation very carefully. He's very admiring of the fact that the Iranian people are taking their country into their own hands. They recognize that if they don't stand up to the Ayatollahs, who for 47 years have made their lives a living hell, then no one is going to do it for them. I think the president is giving them encouragement, that they just need to know that they're not being forgotten, that there are people who recognize that their quest for freedom is a legitimate quest. Iranian people are right now in an economic mess,
Starting point is 00:04:58 For the cost of what used to buy them a car, they can barely buy a loaf of bread. They don't have water. Their government is spending all of its money, throwing it away on Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah, murdering people. They're the number one state-sponsored terror organization in the world. They operate all over the world. It's not just a Middle East issue. It's not a Gulf States issue. It's a global issue.
Starting point is 00:05:23 And these bad boys have not only made it difficult for people across the middle. Middle East and the world, but they've really made it horrible for their own population. And this past summer, peers, the Iranian people saw that their nation, which is 10 times the size of Israel, got its butt kicked by Israel in the 12-day war. And they're wondering, why don't the Iranian officials spend some money on making our country better rather than on murdering people in other countries? What is Donald Trump going to do, do you think? Because he's making it clear in that new statement that if the killing, as he puts it, senseless killing of the protesters doesn't stop.
Starting point is 00:06:03 And the Iranians, the regime's admitted at least 2,000 people have been killed. Many people on the ground believe you can add at least 10,000 to that number, potentially more. Clearly a lot of innocent people are getting killed here. What does Donald... Sorry. I was just saying, without a doubt, there are many. And back in 2009 in the Green Path movement, there were like, 100 people killed, and it almost toppled the regime then. We know that there are thousands
Starting point is 00:06:34 who have already been killed by their government this time. So this proportionally is a much larger movement than we saw even back in that particular moment. So we're watching something that is clearly organic that happened from within. It wasn't something that was stimulated by a foreign government. It was stimulated by the desperation of the Iranian people and by their being fed up. with the government that just seemed to forget that they were hungry, they were thirsty, and their government was ignoring them and spending all their money,
Starting point is 00:07:05 sending big checks and weaponry to the worst terror groups in the world. So in terms of what Donald Trump could do here, again, he says help is on its way, make Iran great again. What does that help look like? What does American help look like if the killing of the protesters continues?
Starting point is 00:07:26 It would not be for me to say. I would tell you what the White House press secretary said today when I asked that very question. She said all options are on the table. And I think that's what the president will look at, all options. What could those be? They could range anything from economic aid to military, may just be the encouragement. I wouldn't try to put a particular option in the hands of President Trump. His instincts are better than anyone's I know. And he's, He seems to know what to do and when to do it. And time and again, he confounds the people who assume he won't do the right thing. And by golly, he ends up doing it. So I'm going to sit back myself and watch and see. But I have every confidence that when the president says something, he means it. And I think the Iranians didn't understand that in the summer. You know, there's a saying down South Pierce that there's no education in the second kick of a mule.
Starting point is 00:08:24 And I don't think the Iranians maybe learned everything from the first kick of the mule they had last summer. And it may take a second kick of the mule. And I would just remind them there's no education in that. That first kick of the mule, that's a great phrase, by the way, that first kick of the mule was a collaborative kick from Israel and the United States. Would Israel get actively engaged again with the United States if there were to be new military strikes against Iran?
Starting point is 00:08:53 I don't think we know. I mean, nobody at this point knows. It was very apparent, and even the Mossad indicated that they were caught off guard by the uprising. So anybody saying that this was instigated by Israel or instigated by the United States, they're saying something that just doesn't match with the reality. This has happened because the Iranian people are saying we want to be unshackled from this oppressive and very horrible government that has made. our lives terrible and that have put us in a position where we don't have food, we don't have water, we don't have a future, but boy, do we ever have missiles. And, you know, there's a point at which people, in their desperation, just say, that's enough. That's what we're seeing in Iran. What Israel will do, what America will do right now is to say, what can we do to be helpful, but we don't want to get in the way of the Iranian people taking their country in their own hands. I think we all have great admiration that this is coming from them, not from someone else. For the cameras, before the ceremony, before history is made, every detail is chosen.
Starting point is 00:10:05 From Amazon MGM Studios comes Melania. This new film takes you inside the 20 days leading up to the 2025 presidential inauguration through the eyes of the First Lady herself, where fashion isn't just style, it's strategy, witness the image to finding decisions made behind closed doors, a celebration of duty and glamour. Melania, only in theatres, January 30. As you said earlier, Ambassador, there have been uprisings before, a number of them,
Starting point is 00:10:35 that have all been quashed in the most violent and ruthless manner by the Ayatollahs. What makes this different? I've been struck by people like the German Chancellor coming out and saying, this is the beginning of the end this time, and it could be just a matter of weeks before this regime topple. others who are very expert in Iran think that is fanciful thinking,
Starting point is 00:11:00 that they are so intrinsically embedded into every aspect of Iranian society, that it can't happen that fast. What is your assessment of whether that is even achievable? I think you and I both remember back in the late 80s when everyone in the world was caught off guard when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down one night, and the people of East Germany said, that's it, we're done. And over the course of the next few months, the entirety of the communist empire started falling apart and people had freedom again.
Starting point is 00:11:33 Nobody would have imagined. Nobody could have predicted. My gosh, if I could have predicted that, I could have predicted the stock market for the next 20 years. But why did it happen? It didn't happen because the U.S. instigated it or because the Brits instigated it or because NATO instigated it. It happened because people finally got fed up and they were willing to risk their lives. What we're seeing on the streets of Iran, and here's what's important, it's not just in Tehran. It's in over 100 cities across this vast country. So this is not a limited issue with a few university students who are yelling and screaming and carrying signs.
Starting point is 00:12:09 These are people who are now engaging in physically challenging the oppressive police and military. There may come a time very soon when some of the people and the police forces of these communities across Iran say, I'm not going to kill my neighbors so that I can somehow please a government that makes me sick too. When that moment happens, and I think we could see it soon, then it's game over. Final question, Ambassador, there are people in the MAGA movement, many people in the United States who are a little bit confused because they voted for a man in Donald Trump who wanted to end American involvement in foreign wars. And now they're seeing potentially new strikes against Iran. They're seeing perhaps an attempt to take Greenland. They're seeing the decapitation of the leader of Venezuela.
Starting point is 00:13:05 And America now, according to Donald Trump, running the country in the interim period, before that is stabilized properly. Ukraine, obviously, is still going on with the United States help there. And they're saying this is incompatible with what they thought they were voting for. What is your response to that? That's a small minority of the people in the MAGA movement because most of us who truly are the America First MAGA movement and have been since Donald Trump became president 2016.
Starting point is 00:13:36 I think what we say is, look, America first, absolutely. But that doesn't mean America only. We're not isolationist. We live in a real world. And it matters to us that people like Maduro we're poisoning tens of thousands, killing tens of thousands of young Americans with illicit drugs.
Starting point is 00:13:54 So the president didn't do that because he just cared about Venezuela. He did it because he cared about the sons and daughters of Americans who were dying because of this drug trafficking that was coming out of Maduro's corrupt Venezuela. President Trump has not engaged us, got us into long-lasting wars that last for 15 or 20 years. My gosh, it was less than an hour that the B-2 bombers went over Iran, bomb the ever-loving daylights out of Fordo and the nuclear sites. There were people who think they're maga, they're not, they're posers, and they said, Donald Trump will get us into a 20-year war.
Starting point is 00:14:32 20,000 Americans will be killed, will have boots on the ground. They look really stupid right now because that's not what happened. President Trump did not get us into a protracted war. No Americans died, and we didn't put boots on the ground. So some of these folks just need to maybe do a little bit more reading and a little less screaming, and they would recognize that what President Trump is doing is exactly what he said he would do, and he's doing it because he is truly making America great again. Ambassador Huckabee, always great to have you on Uncensored, as I said at the top of the interview,
Starting point is 00:15:09 and I say it even more emphatically now. Thank you very much. Thank you, Pierce. Great. Always to be with you. Well, to debate this, I'm joined by the founder and CEO of the Young Turks, Cheongueh, the Uranium-born former Canadian MP, Goldie Gamari, the journalist and host of the Chuck Todd cast, Chuck Todd, and the former US Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill. So a powerful panel to launch our first show back this year. Czech Yuga, happy New Year, first of all.
Starting point is 00:15:34 Let's get the pleasantries out of the way. I suspect things are about to turn unpleasant very quickly, so let's be civil to start. Check, there's a little... I thought it was a good time to have a vacation, if I'm completely honest with you. It turned out to be one of the worst times to ever have a week off in history, where basically all hell broke loose everywhere. And as we try and wrestle with this,
Starting point is 00:15:57 let's talk primarily for the purposes of this debate about Iran first. What do you feel about what's happening there? It does seem significant to me that the German Chancellor is now coming out saying, this is the beginning of the end of the regime, and it could happen in weeks. Is that your sense that this, despite a number of repressed attempts at overthrowing this regime that have failed, that this time we might be seeing the hand of history? Yeah, so first of all, Happy New Year.
Starting point is 00:16:29 Back to you and to everybody on the panel. So, peers, in this case, the most important thing to recognize is that there are two separate issues going on here. One is the Iranian people's battle with the regime. And there, we support the Iranian people 100%. I would love for Iran to be a democracy, control its own country, and be a beacon for freedom in the Middle East. That would be amazing. I would hope that everybody would want that. But there's a second issue also going on at the same time, which is that Israel wants regime change in Iran. They've wanted it for 20 years. They've agitated it for this entire time, including through the representatives of Israel like Mike Hagebigh.
Starting point is 00:17:09 He's not our ambassador. He's the Israeli ambassador. And we know that now because he had a secret meeting with Jonathan Puckabee. who's a traitor to America. So he meets with traitors secretly, by the way, behind Trump's back, behind the American people's back. Everything he just said to you was propaganda for Israel. They wanted this regime change forever. And now, here's how you could tell that I'm right. That doesn't mean it's wrong.
Starting point is 00:17:30 They will not. It doesn't mean it's wrong. Yeah. It might well suit. Yeah, that's right. Hang on. Hang on. It might well suit Israel's interests, but that doesn't mean it doesn't also suit America's
Starting point is 00:17:41 interests or indeed the rest of the world's interests. Right. So, peers, then we get to the issue of, yes, but what is America doing and what should America do? So if you want to accomplish the thing that we all want, which is Iran to be free, the worst possible thing you could do is bomb them. Because if you bomb them, like all countries, they will rally around the flag. If you think there is no one who supports the regime in Iran, you're also wrong about that. I think they're a minority, but they're the minority with the guns, et cetera. And so at this point, the idea that, oh, don't worry, we'll just bomb the Iranians, will kill a whole bunch of their civilians, and then we'll be greeted as liberators. You know, Mike Huckabee talked about two kicks of the mule, except he got the wrong mule.
Starting point is 00:18:28 So we got kicked in Iraq in the same exact way. Neokans like Mike Huckabee coming out there and going, oh, this is going to be easy. We're going to liberate the Iraqis, and the Iraqis are going to love us for it, et cetera. I don't need to get kicked by that mule twice. I guarantee you this will end in disaster if Israel forces us to get involved. If you care about the Iranian people, we should not bomb them. It will be greatly counterproductive. And I guarantee you that both Israel and America does not want democracy.
Starting point is 00:18:58 In Iran, what they want instead is a puppet leader. So they will bring in the former Shah, a king, a dictator, who will do everything that Israel wants. And then the Iranian people will revolt against him. And then we'll go through this cycle again and again, and again and again. This is literally how we got to the Ayatollah by us imposing a shot upon them. So that is a disastrous idea. Do not go into this war. Anti-war means anti-war. War is not peace. George Orwell was a genius. Okay. Goldie Gamarro, you were pulling a number of faces there,
Starting point is 00:19:31 none of which I would describe as particularly indicating an agreement with what Chank was saying. So what would you like to say? I mean, first of all, Chank is not Iranian, so he has no idea what? what's going on in occupied Iran. Pretty sure Cheng doesn't speak Persian either, so he probably has no idea what the tens of millions. No, actually it's Persian. Persian is the English word for Farsi.
Starting point is 00:19:54 So don't correct me when I'm speaking and don't interrupt me. I let you speak your garbage jihadi Islamist propaganda. You should know your native language, though, if you do not, you do not get to talk over me, you do not get to talk over me or interrupt me when I'm speaking on behalf of 90 million Iranians who are out in the streets right now, fighting for their lives. You're not speaking on behalf of all or regions.
Starting point is 00:20:14 Yes, I am. You speak about how, you know, the bombings or whatever. When did they elect you? Why are you speaking over me? Why are you speaking over me? Are you threatened by what I'm about to say? Is that why you want to interrupt me? I suggest you keep your mouth shut until I'm done speaking.
Starting point is 00:20:29 Well, let us speak. Chang, all respect. She'll let you speak. Let her respond. Yeah, I let you speak your garbage propaganda. So now it's my turn to speak the truth. So do not interrupt me again. So like I was saying, like I was saying,
Starting point is 00:20:41 like I was saying, Pierce, Iranians right now are literally risking their lives out there, and they are saying this is the final battle. Pah-Lavi will return. Pah-Lavi is, of course, the Courage Shah of Iran in exile. And what people don't know is that back in 1979, it's not actually a revolution. It was an Islamic coup d'etat.
Starting point is 00:21:04 It was orchestrated by Jimmy Carter, or sorry, actually, I was orchestrated by the Islamists and the communists, And it was funded and supported by Jimmy Carter, the UK and France. So what is happening right now? This is Iranians trying to rectify, and they are rectifying, 47-year mistake that was made. And what Iranians are saying is that we are going out and we are not going to stop fighting until we not only overthrow the Islamic dictatorship,
Starting point is 00:21:36 but we return our king, because there is only one person that we, Iranians trust to transition us from a dictatorship to a democracy. And that is His Royal Highness. And one final point, one final point, Iran was not an authoritarian dictatorship prior to 1979. We were a constitutional monarchy just like England. That is what we are fighting for. So anyone who says that Iran was an authoritarian dictatorship, they know nothing about the country.
Starting point is 00:22:07 Because we used to be a constitutional monarchy. Today show is sponsored by Veracity and their metabolic power protein. Let's be honest, life moves fast and regular meals sometimes don't have the punch we need. Veracity focuses on the root cause of many health issues. Metabolic health, metabolic power protein, delivers 20 grams of plant-based protein in just two scoops without all the unnecessary sugar and calories in other products. It's all natural and developed by doctors, allowing you to get the protein you need and support your metabolism with two easy scoops every single. morning. It's also third-party
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Starting point is 00:22:58 for up to 45% off and make sure you use my promo code Peers so they know I sent you. Chuck Tom, welcome back to Uncensored. Happy New Year. Thank you, sir. There's a lot going on, Chuck. Someone said to me, wow, what a week to not be on air. And I was like, the thing about Donald Trump is there's always another week and another week and another week.
Starting point is 00:23:21 So there's never a good week to have off in Trump land. There's an awful lot going on. You know, it's funny. I was talking to something the other day. If you take away Trump's rhetoric, which can often be very inflammatory, and you focus on what I think is his vision here, a lot of what he's doing, whether it's Greenland, whether it's Venezuela, whether it's Iran.
Starting point is 00:23:43 I can understand the argument. You know, I may not like the way he expresses himself with some of this. I understand the argument. What do you think is the overview here for Donald Trump? Well, I think this is a case of opportunism, right? Look, I was just in the region. I was in Abu Dhabi about a month ago, which obviously is a home to quite a large Iranian diaspora.
Starting point is 00:24:08 And this is before these protests got the attention. And I came away from there in my discussions and meetings with various Iranian journalists and experts, the optimism that the regime is going to fall was high then. And I had another colleague who went in-country over the last six months. And look, there's not drinking water in Tehran, right? Like this, what you're seeing, the level of desperation with the people, I think, is at a level that we haven't been able to fully understand, as frankly, as outsiders because of the, of the, of, the media repression and how little we actually are seeing what's happening in country. But when you talk to Iranians that have either been in country or are communicating,
Starting point is 00:24:52 you know, you do get this sense. So this is coming. And I think this is a question, what does Donald Trump want to do? This is a bit of opportunism. I don't think he wants to get involved. Like I think pre-protests, he was probably willing to negotiate with the regime in some form or another. Now I think he sees where the wind is blowing. And again, if you talk to enough folks in the Iranian diaspora, you will, you can feel that optimism that this regime's days are numbered, but we got to remember, just like Assad in Syria, we knew his days were numbered, but are they hundreds of days, all right? Or was it going to be, you know, 10 or 20 days? And it's possible this is still this regime will fall, but it may not fall until this time next year.
Starting point is 00:25:41 at this point. But it is going to be sooner. So the question really is, is what role? And I think, boy, could the United States use an agency right now called USAID? Because in some ways, that was what it's, the theory of the case behind AID is to be there, do help those that are either looking for freedom and democracy or are trying to build a fledgling democracy. And that is the best toolkit we have. And unfortunately, it's not a toolkit in the, that it's not in the president's toolkit right now, thanks to Doge. Okay, Robert O'Neill, a lot of the time it's worth taking a look at the amount of money being leveraged in the prediction markets
Starting point is 00:26:23 where the money's going. Looks like somebody thinks they know something, because Polly Market has a $19 million market right now on whether the Ayatollah will be deposed, and they're now saying there's a 24% chance. So pretty much a one-in-four chance that the Ayatollah goes here. From a military perspective,
Starting point is 00:26:46 given the scale of these protests, which might well be unprecedented, we can't be entirely sure because the internet's been shut down and footage is scarce. But if it is unprecedented, do you think we're beginning to see the beginning of the end here of this regime?
Starting point is 00:27:03 Thanks for having me and happy New Year to everyone. I'm optimistic about it this time. We've seen it before. Excuse me. And like Chuck Todd said, it's kind of up to the media how much they're going to report on it. Because we only know what we're told from over there, at least, you know, like the first guess, I don't speak Persian or Iranian or Farsi or Urdu, so I'm going to say it in English so I don't even confuse myself.
Starting point is 00:27:26 But in the past, when they see the Iranians rising up, when they get to that point, for some reason, our media blocks that out. And then it seems to me, because I'm not there. And if I'm not there, I can only, you know, go by what I hear or read. then they crack down hard, they kill people, then it goes back to business as usual. This time, what the Iranians have seen is that we bombed a mountain, we hit them pretty hard,
Starting point is 00:27:47 so hopefully, regardless of the media blackout or what our media chooses to say, the Iranian people know that we will support them. The biggest problem that we had, well, one of the major problems that we had in Iraq, the biggest problem being we went into Iraq, was we immediately disbanded the bath party. And although they looked bad because they were doing
Starting point is 00:28:05 what Saddam Hussein wanted, they're doing that because they want to keep their heads on their own shoulders. They're going to do what they need to do to survive and keep their family alive. We got rid of them and then foreign fighters came in and obviously we know the civil war started. It was chaos for a long, long time.
Starting point is 00:28:18 Right now what's happening there, if the Iranians know that we're going to help, but then our media backs out and they're not sure about us, who knows what they're going to do, but I do know that foreign fighters are now going into Iran to try to help, be that the Madi army, who the Shias, or is it Hezbollah. Even Hamas, I mean, they were funding,
Starting point is 00:28:35 getting funding through the Iranians, but I believe they're Sunni, and I'm not sure what's going to be. to happen there. But I think the bottom line, and this is me just trying to be an honest broker, I think we should do as allies everything we can to support the Iranian people and help them get what they want. This is not Rob O'Neill from the United States. It's not my decision, but I would love to help the Iranian people because I think everyone would agree they've been they've been beaten down in the press for almost as long as I've been alive.
Starting point is 00:29:06 Yeah, Chink. Pierce, can I quickly add something here just a piece of reporting that I got while overseas is that there's some thought that the current president, okay, and I may mess up his name, Pesheskian, is he's turned out to be at least rhetorically more moderate than some expected. And I had a source who's had somebody close to him indicating he thinks he can be the Iranian Gorbachev, meaning, and that's a real. And so if you actually ask strategically, what could the United States do, can it start to find people that are within the regime who want to help get rid of the regime? Right. And look, and who's to say that this even worked out as that well? But you do in some cases, without Gorbachev, does the Soviet Union fall as cleanly as it fell? Right.
Starting point is 00:29:59 And I think so when you're asking like, how do we deal with the next day? I think finding out whether indeed the Iranian president wants to play a role here or not is something that that's the type of thing our intelligence community in theory should be able to help with. Today's show is sponsored by Oxford Natural, makers of the optimum day and optimum night all natural supplements. Thousands of Brits and Americans are already taking them with incredible results. Optimum day boosts your energy and supports weight loss throughout the day. optimum night helps you relax and get deep, refreshing sleep. They have countless success stories, including from some very familiar faces.
Starting point is 00:30:40 England legend Michael Owen, we lost £40. AFTV's Robbie, we lost more than £100. To watch their full stories and many more, scan the QR code on your screen or visit Oxfordnatural.com slash piers. And here's the best part. Use the code peers and get 70% off your first order. You're 70% off with the code peer. I want to just turn now to someone who's been on uncensored a few times.
Starting point is 00:31:08 Muhammad Morandi, professor at Tehran University, a supporter of the regime. Welcome back to uncensored, Muhammad Miranda. I appreciate you coming on. What is your assessment of what is happening on the ground in Iran? Well, first of all, when you say a supporter of the regime, you're framing it in a certain way. I assume you are a supporter of the British or the American regime. But it's obvious what happened.
Starting point is 00:31:34 happened. We had currency manipulation last week. The currency fell 30, 40 percent. It was carried out by the United States, forcing neighboring countries not to cooperate with Iranians over the currency. Then we had peaceful protests among business people. And there were a few thousand people in two, three different cities. There was no violence. There were no arrests. Nothing happened. Then the next day, We had another more protest, roughly the same size, I guess. I don't remember exactly. Then we had infiltration, and we had violent rioters. And that was the beginning of extreme violence, which peaked on Thursday night.
Starting point is 00:32:17 And we know that Pompeo, the former head of the CIA, said that Musad is on the ground with the rioters. We have Musad in a Persian statement. They said that they are on the ground. And the most interesting thing of all is that late on Thursday night during the height of the riots, and roughly 100 officers of the law were murdered. A couple of them burnt alive, beheaded, head smashed. We had a nurse who was burned alive in a clinic. The clinic was burnt down. We had many buses, ambulances, and fire engines destroyed.
Starting point is 00:32:59 tens of each. I'm not sure about ambulances, but I know tens of fire engines and public buses and private property. But the point is that late on Thursday night or early in the morning,
Starting point is 00:33:12 they cut off the internet and suddenly everything died down. The reason? Because all these groups, these small groups, violent groups that were spread out in different cities and different parts of big cities,
Starting point is 00:33:26 they could no longer communicate with their bosses abroad. So it was really spontaneous. The riots would have continued. But now we've had four days of quiet. And yesterday, we had massive anti-riot protests across the country. And I asked your producer to show footage of the protests in Tehran against the rioters. And this is from the middle of the footage. This is Engelab Square. It goes from Imam Hussein Square to Azadi Square, from Engelab Square, south to Imam Khomeini Square.
Starting point is 00:34:09 That is millions of people. That is huge. Anyone can look on the map or use Deepseek or some other AI app and check what sort of distance this is. This is a helicopter. But just a few hours ago... Let's stop you there, Professor Wilma. To be clear, that's footage you've supplied. We've been unable to independently verify it.
Starting point is 00:34:32 So it is what it is. Clearly, there are people, it seems, from all the independent reports I've read, who are... Okay, so Goldie, for example, one of our panelists is saying that footage is from 2020. So we don't know what you're showing is there. You accept that? No, that's a dishonest take. that footage is very clear. This misinformation is being produced by the West. And the reporter who was on that helicopter, whose face is there, he came on television, showed the footage.
Starting point is 00:35:11 I was at the protest. There were millions of people. What you are trying to do, just like you did during the Israeli regime's attack on Iran, is you are trying to help war. Because when the Israeli regime carried out that Blitz-Creek attack. As we were negotiating with them, you invited me and started bad-mouthing Iran. Why? Because you and many others like you mentioned... I didn't bat-mouthed Iran. Sorry, just to be clear...
Starting point is 00:35:35 Oh, yes, he did. Just to be clear, hang on, hang on, hang on. Professor, Professor, Professor, just to be clear, I never bad-mouthed Iran. I bad-moused the Iranian regime, which I think is one of the most malevolent regimes in the world. That's not bad-mouthing the country of Iran, all the Iranian people.
Starting point is 00:35:55 Now, I want to bring in Goldie Gamari because she wants to directly challenge what you have said. Yes, you said it's a one-on-one. Yes, you said it's a one-on-one. That's fine. Your producer... But you've accused her.
Starting point is 00:36:08 You do not allow me to continue. Fine. But you have... Your producer said, your producer said it's a one-on-one between you and me. Yes. You're a stable-on-on debate. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hold on, hold on, please. Don't all talk at once.
Starting point is 00:36:23 Professor Miranda, Professor Miranda, Goldie, please let me handle this. Professor Miranda, here's why I brought Goldie back into the conversation with you. No, so you're being dishonest. Because she has said, she says to us, have you watched that footage, it is actually not what you have said it is.
Starting point is 00:36:44 Goldie, tell the professor what you believe that footage is. That footage is from Gossin Soleimani's funeral in 2020. That is not footage from today. 100% propaganda. The Islamic regime, they are liars, they are murderers, they are thieves. I don't even know how he has access to the internet right now. The internet is shut off. The internet is shut off.
Starting point is 00:37:03 Where is he communicating from? Okay. Now, here's, I just want to remind you that your producer said this is a one-on-one. And like on previous occasions, you do not abide by what you say you will do. Well, you made a statement. You made a statement and gave us footage. which one of our panelists has directly challenged. But just to respond in the General Gossam Sodimani's funeral,
Starting point is 00:37:34 the bodies were on trucks, and there are no trucks in this crowd. And the crowd goes from Imam Hussein Square, which is to the top, towards the top. The crowd here goes all the way to Imam Hussein Square. The bodies never went there. The bodies began, the funeral procession began at the University of Tehran. So the path of the General Soleimani funeral and his companions was not towards Imam Hussein.
Starting point is 00:38:08 And here, where are the trucks? Where is the funeral procession? Because it was not just him. There were a number of people who were murdered. Don't pretend. No one can pretend that the rallies yesterday, which took place across Iran in Mashhad, in Tabriz, in Maran.
Starting point is 00:38:30 All been debuts. The rally, the footage rally, all been debunked. This woman. This, Pierce, if you, next, I won't come again on your show because every time you're dishonest. You won't be fully every time you lie. And you bring, and you bring. No, no, to be fair, to be fair, to be fair, let me explain.
Starting point is 00:38:50 Let me explain. You bring the golden. Let me explain. people on your hands right now. Goldie, I will come back to Goldie and the panel in a moment. I'll go back to one-on-one. I will go back to one-on-one with you now. She wanted to directly challenge that footage.
Starting point is 00:39:06 She's done so. You have responded. That is perfectly legitimate journalism from where I'm sitting. No, that's not acceptable, Pierce. In any case, the very, just hours ago, the BBC was showing this, the footage of the protest across Iran against the rioters yesterday and talking about an uprising,
Starting point is 00:39:30 implying dishonestly that these people on the streets who are protesting against the rioters are in fact supporters of the rioters. This is how it works in the West. Well, the best way, the best way, sir me, Professor, the best way, Professor, the best way, Professor, the best way to,
Starting point is 00:39:49 talk about, just one moment. The best way to clear this up, is to allow journalists to do their job freely in Iran, turn the internet back on, let everybody work out for themselves what is really happening. But when a regime shuts off the internet, what it's really doing is not trying to stop communication between protesters,
Starting point is 00:40:09 it's trying to stop the truth about what it is doing in response being communicated to the world. And what it's doing is murdering thousands of Iranians who are protesting. They've admitted killing 2000, Reports are there may be as many as 12,000 or more. We're seeing footage here of body bags everywhere, and that is why the regime is turning off the internet.
Starting point is 00:40:33 It's not out of some great altruistic. While we just don't want these people communicating, it's so that we can kill them, and the rest of the world can't see what we're doing. No, Pierce, that is an utterly dishonest take. The numbers are fabricated. you, no one has, the government has not given any numbers. And as I said, 2000.
Starting point is 00:40:56 I'm talking, Pierce. You don't want me to talk. Well, you said, you're just wrong. You are, you are just like those journalists who are talking about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the incubators. Well, I led the campaign against that, as you may remember. Well, you've flipped. I've flipped to anything. In any case, I try and deal in facts.
Starting point is 00:41:17 No, Pierce. We had rioters who burned people alive who cut people's heads off, and the evidence is there. And what has your regime done to the protesters? The protesters, Pierce, the millions of people that came to the streets yesterday. Why did they come to the streets? It's because your narrative is nonsense. Well, how many protesters have been killed?
Starting point is 00:41:41 Your narrative is a fabrication. I don't know the numbers. You don't know. I do know that roughly 100 officers of the law have been murdered. So you know how many people you believe have been killed on the regime side, but you have no idea how many people the regime's killed. You don't want me to talk because you're afraid, because you're afraid that I'm going to wreck your narrative.
Starting point is 00:42:10 That's cowardly, Pierce. I think what you're afraid of, you're not going to say a single sentence. You're afraid of this uprising this time being the one that actually topples the regime that you prop up. You want to help that just like you were preparing as the Israeli regime carried out
Starting point is 00:42:26 its Blitz Creek attack on Iran when Iran was negotiating, you were saying all sorts of nonsense about Iran to demonize the country, to justify the aggression and the slaughter. So you have blood on your hands. And this is what you're doing now today for Trump. The protesters on the streets
Starting point is 00:42:43 across the country yesterday said a big note to you. and your fake narratives. But people like you will just go out and say, this is fake. There was no demonstration. Whereas there were reporters in Iran. Al Jazeera was there.
Starting point is 00:42:59 Many other people were there. You had Iranians across the board there. It was shown live on television peers. It was shown on Iranian channels live. Your producers can go back and look at the footage online as it was being shown. You cannot pretend that millions of people were not on the streets in Tehran. You cannot pretend that simultaneously millions of people were not on the streets throughout the country.
Starting point is 00:43:25 It's a fact. It was shown live throughout. I'm not sure, Professor, all due respect. I'm all due respect. I'm not sure that you and facts are easy bedfellows. But I appreciate you. That's your problem, here. Not really.
Starting point is 00:43:39 You're the one who bends the back. Actually, it may be a problem for you. You're the one. You're the one who denied the genocide. in Gaza for a year and a half, and you try to justify the actions of the Israeli regime for a year and a half. And let
Starting point is 00:43:53 me be very clear that if the United States, if Trump carries out an attack on Iran, Iranian retaliation will be massive. And people like you... Like it was after the strike last summer, you mean? And people like you. You said this last time.
Starting point is 00:44:09 You said this last time. You said this last time. You're full of crap, aren't he? Because you said this last time. Do you remember? It was all going to happen last time. Last time, Steve Bannon, the day after the war ended, on his show, said that the reality was that during the last three, four days of the war, the Israeli regime was in serious trouble, and they were begging for a ceasefire. What happened to the retaliation that you said would happen?
Starting point is 00:44:38 And Trump, because the Israeli regime was begging for a ceasefire. What happened to your retaliation? Did you see Tel Aviv? Did you see how we hammered to him? Please. Please. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. Okay. You come on here all the time and you say it's going to be, retaliation is going to be horrific.
Starting point is 00:44:57 It's going to be this. It's going to be that. And it doesn't happen. Iran doesn't have the capability to respond in the way that you talk. It's all bluff. It's all bluster. And what it seems to me, Professor Now, is the people of Iran have had enough of this bullshit and they're rising up. And as the German Chancellor says,
Starting point is 00:45:14 I believe this is the beginning of the end of that regime and puppets like you that have helped prop it up are going to look very stupid when that day comes. But I appreciate you joining me. Thank you very much indeed for joining me. I'll go back to the panel. History will remember your lies. Yeah, okay.
Starting point is 00:45:31 I'm sure they'll remember someone's lies and it won't be me. But thank you. Remember your lies. Always a pleasure to talk to you, Professor Miranda. Let me go back to the panel. Robert Neal, your reaction to that. I had a hard time listening to it.
Starting point is 00:45:44 honest, Pierce, I had to mute that guy. I can always tell when I'm listening to someone who, two things, he speaks in front of people who were forced to listen to him, and he's obviously never been punched in the face. I was here listening. I wanted to tear my own arm off so I could have something to throw at the screen. I mean, I'm not sure what kind of ratings that guy's going to get you. I'm serious. I don't know what he was talking about. He's a mouthpiece. He looks like the butcher of Baghdad. I wasn't listening. Do we talk about, you got another question? Well, I think the interesting thing to me is that he, after the airstrikes in the mountain last summer, He came on and was full of the same bluster about the retaliation is going to be horrific.
Starting point is 00:46:19 And America will wish it had never done this, Israel, which had never done it. And it turned out that they chucked a few fireworks at Tel Aviv and that was it. In other words, I don't think Iran has anything like the military capability. He and other puppets of that regime like to pretend they do. No, they absolutely do not. But again, as a guy who thinks that we should not have invaded Iraq, and I was excited about it, but I think we shouldn't have. I could see getting excited about it again
Starting point is 00:46:47 as a young Navy SEAL, but that's not the case now. We definitely don't want boots on the ground. This again, has to come back to the Iranian people, but unfortunately, like your last guess, all we're getting is people screaming at each other. If you're a regime that's turning off the internet, it's kind of a telltale sign of what's actually going on.
Starting point is 00:47:03 Yeah, and they're not doing that. As I said to him, Chech, they're not turning off the internet because they want to stop the protesters communicated. They're doing it to stop the world watching how they are trying. treating the protesters. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:18 So look, the idea that the regime are good guys is absurd. So there's been Iranian propaganda here. There's been Israeli propaganda. But what I care about is the American people. And the propaganda I'm sick of is pro-war propaganda. So we've seen this movie before, and you guys are falling for it like suckers again. There's all this bullshit about how the Iranian people would like to be bombed and how like they would love for America to conduct Israel's war for it.
Starting point is 00:47:48 And we should do regime change. It'll be easy. We'll be greeted as liberators. It'll be cheap. We won't have to put troops on the ground. Bullshit. You can't run a country from afar. At some point, you're going to have to put troops on the ground.
Starting point is 00:48:01 And you know what's going to happen? They're going to get harmed. And when they get harmed, then they're going to come back on TV and say, I can't believe the Iranians did this. I can't believe the Venezuelans did this. We're going to have to hit them more. And then they're going to put in more ground troops. It never ever will.
Starting point is 00:48:14 works. So if you believe peers and everyone else that these riots, these protests are legitimate and have nearly toppled the regime, that's wonderful. I don't like this regime. Let them keep going. But the minute you bomb them, first of all, they're going to lose all credibility on the ground, the protesters are. The regime is going to love that action. They're going to use that to rally the Iranian people to their side. It is going to be deeply counterproductive. And then if it is somehow successful in toppling the I or two, they're going to be, they're going to I guarantee you Israel and America are going to insist that Iran be run by a different dictator. They can call him Shah, they can call him king, it doesn't matter.
Starting point is 00:48:54 That that brother is a dictator. And we tried it before, literally with a different shot with his dad. And when we tried that, it was so bad, it was so oppressive that it led to our Islamic revolution, which we've had to deal with this whole time. Every time we interfere with Iran, it creates massive blood. massive blowback and then the American people have to pay the price in blood and treasure. I've already seen this disastrous movie in Iraq. I do not want to repeat it and I'm seeing the same exact bullshit propaganda supporting this war of regime change. And yes, it's obviously
Starting point is 00:49:32 on behalf of Israel. Who are we kidding? Look at the Israelis frothing at the mouth. We've seen them for 20 years ago. You have to invade Iran on our behalf. You have to invade Iran. on our behalf okay well why doesn't Israel do it and by the way look at all this bullshit about how oh the Iranians are the regime is bad guys of course they are but so was Saddam that didn't mean we should go into Iraq is so Kim Jong-un is a terrible leader abuses his people so badly in North Korea how come there's no propaganda against him because Israel it doesn't have North Korea within Greater Israel so since it's not related to Israel there's no
Starting point is 00:50:09 talk of the terrible leader of North Korea how about you guys worried about state sponsor terrorism is a terrorist state so they killed two thousand in iran these protesters and i hate that that the regime did that israel killed 70 000 Palestinians they occupy five and a half million of them and they say they're never going to free them so why are we helping a terrorist state start another disastrous war in iraq that we're going to have in iran in this case that we're going to have to pay for okay people don't know this iran is four times the size of iraq they're walking you into another disaster and I guarantee it and it'll be for Israel again and then they'll pretend that it wasn't
Starting point is 00:50:49 and they'll call everyone an anti-Semite. This America, listen to me, this isn't our war. I hope the protesters win, but do not let these people sucker you into another multi-trillion dollar war on behalf of Israel. Okay. Chuck Todd, your response. Well, I actually don't think that, I mean, I sort of, you know, sometimes we all debate the extreme potential ideas when I don't think that's what's happening here. I think, look, as much as I am concerned that President Trump is got of the Yolo virus, meaning he's more likely to do things that might not, that are politically unpopular because he wants to do it, he wants to legacy build or whatever it is, whether it's Venezuela,
Starting point is 00:51:32 whether it's overthrowing the Cuban regime, Greenland, et cetera. Look, I think any sort of military assistance here will come up, is more likely, to backfire than not, right? That is what history has taught us. At the same time, finding a way to support these protesters is something that we should be leaning into. We're the United States of America. When people want freedom and democracy, if we're not standing by them, who is, right? That doesn't mean you do it with tanks. It doesn't mean you do it with bombs. And by the way, it's not just Israel that wants this Iranian regime gone. You know who the number one supplier of drones is to the Russians to kill innocent Ukrainians, it's Iran. You know who else would like to see
Starting point is 00:52:18 Iran gone? Pretty much the entire Gulf Peninsula, that regime gone. So this, in fairness, this is not about Israel. So what? Not everything is about Israel when it comes to the Middle East. You know, there's certainly, you know, protecting Israel has been a priority of this country for a long time. I understand that. But in this case, this is about the Iranian regime. Who are you kidding, Chuck? I'm not going to die. But the Iranian regime here has been a bad actor to a lot of people, not just the state of Israel. Yeah. Goldie, let me bring you in here. You were born in Iran. Do you feel this is different to previous uprisings? Yes, absolutely. This is different. This time around, the stars have aligned here.
Starting point is 00:53:03 So this isn't the first time that we have tried to overthrow the Islamic dictatorship. We've been trying for the last 47 years, in fact. But this time, we have a leader. We have his royal highness, King Gryza Pahlavi, who has he's heated the call of the Iranian people. He is going to be stepping in as a transitional leader. He's going to be taking our country from a brutal Islamic dictatorship into a functioning secular democracy. Now, what type of democracy that's going to be, that's going to be based on a national referendum that the Iranian people will vote. for. So whether they want a constitutional monarchy or whether they want a republic, we Iranians are
Starting point is 00:53:45 going to determine that. And that plan is actually available online. It's on a website called Iran Prosperity Project. It's been online for over six months. I can't think of any other revolution, in fact, where the transitional plan for the emergency government has already been published and peer-reviewed and is also available in English online. There are also a number other factors here. So Elon Musk providing Starlink and Starlink devices, that is huge, because that has allowed us to continue receiving messages from people in occupied Iran despite the mass slaughter. The other really important factor as well is that President Trump is now giving his support to the Iranian people. And we're not asking for boots on the ground, nothing like
Starting point is 00:54:35 that. But when you look at President Ronald Reagan, President Ronald Reagan's support for the oppressed people is what led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and there were no boots on the ground there. The propaganda that Chen is putting out there, it's the other side of the... Because we didn't bomb the Soviet Union. Can you, please don't interrupt me. I did not interrupt you when you were spouting your garbage. So as I was saying, the propaganda that Chen is putting out there, that's the other side of the coin of the Islamic dictatorship. So it's meant to put fear into Americans by saying, oh, let's go bomb Iran. Well, no, no one's going to go bomb Iran. Israel and the United States back in the 12-day war, they targeted Islamic regime bases.
Starting point is 00:55:18 They never targeted civilians. And in the 12-day war, yes, there were civilian casualties. 200 Iranian civilians lost their lives in the 12-day war. But in the past two days alone, the Islamic dictatorship has slaughtered over 12,000 Iranians. And that's at a minimum right now for what we know. So what Iranians are saying is that they will fight until the very end because they know that at this point it's either liberty or death. And so they are still going out. They are still fighting.
Starting point is 00:55:54 And the one person, the one person that has mobilized us Iranians around the world to rise up and overthrow the Islamic. dictatorship is his royal highness king or is a pahalabi so you know people like people like chank can complain and bark all they want but ultimately their opinion is irrelevant we iranians we've already decided what we want and our self-determination is our right okay i've got to leave it there for the panel what are you talking about she can i no no no can i just say she keeps pretending to speak for the persian people there's been no vote she doesn't represent any of them it's so some do like the shah I don't dispute that. I think that they're very, very mistaken in that.
Starting point is 00:56:33 There's some earnest people who believe that. And then there's people who work for Israel who say, yeah, he's a perfect puppet for Israel. And he should be, and then Chuck says, oh, well, the UAE also wants him gone and Turkey wants Iran. Why do I care about those countries? I don't care about those. I care about those. Can I ask about one last question? Rob, you're military. You're irrelevant.
Starting point is 00:56:52 You're irrelevant. Can I ask you how many military? Hold on. Let me ask Rob a question. Let me ask Rob a question. Hey, is Israeli? I don't talk over each other. When the regime is not going to come after you.
Starting point is 00:57:07 Hey, Rob, when you do enough military exercise, look, it was what we did in Iran was tactically amazing. What we did in Venezuela was tactically amazing. That isn't strategy, that's tactics. But if you take enough risk, Rob, at some point, aren't you going to lose someone? Golding let him finish. And plane is going to get knocked down. You're going to lose some members of a Delta force, etc. And at that point, people are going to be going to be able to.
Starting point is 00:57:30 get mad and then they're going to want bigger war and bigger retaliation and we're going to get sucked in. Maybe I don't understand it, Rob, Rob, has the U.S. military become perfect and we can never lose anyone? There's no risk. Or are we taking significant risk here? Yeah, check, I like what you're saying as far as we're thinking outside of the box because what happened to Venezuela was not an anomaly is something we can do, but with no one getting killed, no heila getting shot down. We had birds get hit. If one goes down, like you said, yes, we'll probably lose people. If one of the birds that got hit like the Nivezweil goes down. We've had it before with extortion 1-7 and Turbine 3-3. Everyone on board dies. And then you got to go recover the body of the aircraft and then you get the sentiment of
Starting point is 00:58:08 yes, we want to go and take more actions. It's very, very dangerous. My biggest concern with Iran is I don't want the United States of Halliburton to get their boots on the ground again. And you're really towing a very, very dangerous line. Once we start sending these, look at, we flew in with two stealth birds, came back with one. One went down. We had to blow it up. We're outside all of a sudden with the locals and a bottom. With the locals and a about Pakistan, very dangerous. They don't know why we're there. The local police that are there don't know why we're there.
Starting point is 00:58:34 We don't want to kill local police because we're in their country. There's so many complications that can potentially happen. That's why hopefully we can do something. The worst thing we can say that we've done, as history repeats itself, is say, well, this is the way we've always done it. Then we're going to end up with another bad war and another panel of people like us who obviously know more than everyone else solving all the problems. I think we can do something simpler.
Starting point is 00:58:54 I think it obviously starts with talking with the people, negotiations, and then hopefully listen to other people. Because nobody's perfectly right and nobody's perfectly wrong. But I think we all need to agree the Iranian people need to get a much better way of life they've been living for the past 47 years. You know what? Let's end on that note of common sense and nuance.
Starting point is 00:59:13 What a pleasure to hear a bit of nuance about a complex situation. Thank you to my panel. I appreciate it all very much. I'm joined now by the British and Iranian comedian and actor, Omid Jalili. Omid, welcome back to... How are you feeling after all that? Take a breath. Are you okay? Do you know what? It was nice to end with somebody taking a slightly more nuanced view
Starting point is 00:59:33 of what is a very complicated story. As it is with Venezuela, as it is with Greenland, as it is with the ice protester who got shot. None of these things are black and white, bang, bang. And yet everyone is so tribal now. They want to immediately make it a tribal, intransigent. there is only one way to look at this story. Yeah. That is the problem.
Starting point is 01:00:01 And by doing that, we're othering people. In fact, majority of people, they actually even see that they can't support the people in Iran because some people is, oh dear, if we support people of Iran, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And, you know, they are standing up to Israel. So if I support the people of Iran, I'm a Zionist.
Starting point is 01:00:19 Oh, dear. It's ridiculous. I was really struck by the Golden Globes, that there were lots of support. there for the anti-ice protesters, lots of support for Gaza and other things. Nobody expressed any public support in Hollywood for the people of Iran.
Starting point is 01:00:37 And that's exactly what you're getting at, I think. It was very telling to me. They're othering people. It's like as if the people of Iran are expendable. Right. They're dispensable. It doesn't really matter, but they don't want to get involved. And that is...
Starting point is 01:00:51 What we're seeing evolve in Iran is one of the most extraordinary stories of revolution of all time. I was at the Berlin Wall. I was there. Were you? I was actually there, knocking bits of it down, because I thought it was a real moment in history. Were you really? I was actually there. I was 24 years old. Well, you happened to be there or you went out? I went there
Starting point is 01:01:07 because there was a velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia. I actually ended up living in Czechoslovakia from 1990 to 1995. I was very excited by this time in history and I wanted to be part of it. But I can tell you it was pretty velvet revolution, one person died. Berlin Wall, pretty much peaceful.
Starting point is 01:01:24 12. Peers, this is serious. The estimates are between 2,000 to 12,000 people being killed in two days. And you're telling me nobody cares about this. We are now seeing, and the people are still coming out on the streets. Something incredible. We're looking at something that's going to happen that's pretty seismic and the whole world. Do we really know, Omin, what is that?
Starting point is 01:01:45 Given the shutdown of the internet and the portity of the footage that we're seeing and the ability of regime supporters like Professor Moran, who comes on and says, here's this footage. It shows millions of people protesting in support of the regime and so on. None of which can be verified and was in fact directly challenged by one of the panelists. But given this sort of fog of unverifiable claim and counterclaim, because there is no internet there at the moment. Five days of it now. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:02:17 So what can we really believe? Have you spoken to anyone in Iran? Are you getting a feel for what's really happening? A friend of mine, a brother was killed. and it's very difficult to even get information, but they said to get the body, you've got to pay what is equivalent to $5,000, which is unpayable.
Starting point is 01:02:34 But very, very significantly, they had to sign a piece of paper to say that the body belonged to the security forces and he was killed by protesters. So it's that kind of propaganda that is being pushed. And I think at the end of the day, we're seeing videos, look, I'm not the kind of person to share those kind of gory videos.
Starting point is 01:02:50 I've seen them. I've hardly slept peers in the last two weeks because I'm so invested, I should tell you, not as an Iranian, but as a human being, watching other human beings stand up to repression that's been going on for years. And frankly, this narrative that it's Israeli-led or that it's American-led,
Starting point is 01:03:08 this misinformed patronizing a narrative, which is so offensive to Iranians that we've had these uprisings for years when Israel and America would have nothing to gain. This is the narrative that is pushing people to kill protesters. So I'm all for free speech, but when you're pushing this narrative, you're getting people killed. Right. And it's why the Hollywood stars didn't want to put their head over the parapet and support Iranian people because they have bought into a narrative that's being put out there very forcefully.
Starting point is 01:03:39 This is all at the behest of Israel. And the point I made to Chechunger is, well, it might be in Israel's interest, clearly. They would love to see the Ayatollah deposed and the regime got rid of. So would America. Yeah. And so would many, many other people and countries around the world. This is a despicable regime. Everybody knows that.
Starting point is 01:03:58 And this moment, I would say, when we say all eyes on Iran, it's more significant than Ukraine, Russia, Venezuela, all of it put together, short of an alien invasion and contact with aliens. This is the moment of history where if something changes here, it could change the whole landscape of the world. Why? Because we have a regime that funds terrorism. And this is something that people,
Starting point is 01:04:21 who are listening need to hear this very, very clearly. And all the people who were saying, oh, but Iran stands up to Israel. Bear in mind, there was a football match. And we're big football fans. And after October 7, there was a football match between two of the big rivals in Iran. And a regime person came on was waving of Palestinian flag. The football fans of Iran started singing, shove that Palestinian flag up your backside. And everyone said, this is so offensive to the people of Palestine. But no, I went on and I explained what there's shouting at is the regime official, because football fans knew, their support of the Palestinian cause is non-existent. Their whole modus operandi, an aim, is to destroy Israel and what is
Starting point is 01:05:05 in the IRGC constitution to kill all Jews everywhere. And that's fact, and that's what Iranians know, and that's the thing that we are pushing back against. What do you think is going to happen here? Because we have seen a number of uprisings that got repelled and quashed in ruthless, violent manner by the Ayatollahs, we've seen the German Chancellor come out and say he believes this is the beginning of the end. And it could take just a few weeks. Do you share that optimism? Yes, I do because we have intelligence from people who are in the know, people like Tom Tuganat, who is the former Minister for Security.
Starting point is 01:05:40 He seems to have intelligence. The regime are actually over. These are the final death pangs of a regime. And I think that, look, at the end of the day, will it be this week? Will it be next week, will it be up until March even? We don't know. But Mullers have been seen leaving the country. The economy is unsavable. There is no way this regime can survive. So it's a question
Starting point is 01:06:00 of not if, but absolutely when. And the people have said there's the most incredible war of a chishin going on. You keep killing us, but we ain't moving. You're going to have to, we've seen telegram messages today. We need some help because they're literally going to slaughter all of us. Is the answer
Starting point is 01:06:17 Reva Pahlavi, the crown prince, because as people have pointed out, the Shah, his father, was overthrown himself in 1979. That precipitated the mullah's taking over. Is that the answer for Iran to go back to a constitutional monarchy
Starting point is 01:06:33 with the crown prince? I think that that particular revolution had something to do with 1953 in the coup with Mossadegh and people in Iran were upset with American interference. So in a sense with Iranians don't
Starting point is 01:06:47 mind if Trump getting involved because it might be writing the wrongs of the past. Even Obama said he should have done something in 2009 with the Green movement. But Reza Pahlavi, all I can tell you is he seems educated. He seems to be talking a big game with regards to transitioning Iran to a secular democracy and a democratically elected government, possibly a constitutional monarchy like Britain that is next to a secular government. And at the end of the day, the Iranian people are saying, we have agency and we will decide. And I think that's the most important thing.
Starting point is 01:07:19 What Chuck Todd, in a former NBC anchor, was on just now saying that he's got some reporting that the president of Iran is actually a lot more moderate than people expected it to be. Yes. Yeah, and that actually he could end up being a Gorbachev figure in this. Is that something you could see potentially happening? I really don't know, but one of his ideas was to pay protesters, pay all of Iran $7 a month.
Starting point is 01:07:43 And I think that was with the economy being the way it is. it was a shocking suggestion to make. And what's happening right now in Iran, they're trying to change the hearts and minds of the regime forces, saying, who are you defending? Your money is as worthless as our money, which is why we see, which is very significant, last night and the day before,
Starting point is 01:08:03 many Iranian regime forces did not come out. And a lot of the killing is being done by Iraqis and people from outside the country who just paid money to kill Iranians, because Iranians themselves, very few of them will do what Iraqis have been doing to Iranians. You know, I've been struck just in my own little way by the sheer volume of Iranians
Starting point is 01:08:23 who've been messaging me on social media, all pleading for help in getting this over the line. And I've never seen anything quite like it. It's do or die. It really is, because the Iranians have got to the point where they've got no money. They're so angry with the regime that have been using their money for terrorism.
Starting point is 01:08:42 Some countries don't even have, some cities don't even have, a water. It's a moment where you see people who are actually saying we'd rather die on our feet than live on our knees. Yeah, which is an amazing thing. And actually how most revolutions end up being successful. Exactly. Well done to you. Well done to you for giving a voice to all this. I think it's absolutely fantastic. I think it's essential. And I do think this narrative that just because Israel may stand to game by this, therefore, if you have a position about what Israel's been doing in Gaza, you can't be supportive of the Iranian people. I think that is such a selection. I think that is such a
Starting point is 01:09:15 morally bankrupt position to take? If that's your position, then people, you have absolutely no leg to stand on. And we will really question all your other things that you are thinking. And I think at the end of the day, if you want to stand up for the people of Iran, that's good. But any of the other cultural stuff around it,
Starting point is 01:09:32 shut the hell up. Yeah, I agree. I'd be great to see you. Thank you very much. Here's Morgan Nuss Sensen is proudly independent. The only boss around here is me. If you enjoy our show, we ask only one simple thing.
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