The Duran Podcast - RUSSIAN air defense to IRAN panics Biden White House

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

RUSSIAN air defense to IRAN panics Biden White House

All right, Alexander, let's talk about this story of ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia. Short-range ballistic missiles is what we are being told. Iran has given Russia. This is causing outrage and alarm in the collective West. I don't see why they're so outraged over this. But it does look like this is part of a bigger deal, military deal, between Russia. and Iran. What do you think is going on here? Well, I suspect that's the true reason for the outrage, because as you absolutely said in itself, the deal has no, there's nothing in the deal that one would

expect the way would provoke the West's outrage. After all, Russia and Iran have our friends. They're now fellow Bricks states. The West has terrible relations with Iran. The West has terrible relations with Russia. Iran has been threatened. We've had an assassination take place in Tehran on the day of the president of Iran's inauguration. The West has imposed sanctions on Iran. There's been talks about attacks on Iran. It's entirely unsurprising, therefore, that the Russians and the Iranians are coming together and that they're agreeing military deals with each other. Now, about this particular deal, and I think we can take it that this deal does exist, because a very prominent Iranian parliamentarian has confirmed it.

I suspect what this is all about is that it flows directly from the events that took place back a few weeks ago, when Isma al-Hanir, the chief negotiator and political head of Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran. We got reports afterwards that the Ukrainians, sorry, the Iranians were busy receiving advanced air defense missile systems from the Russians, S-400 missiles, the accompanying radars, all of that sort of sophisticated technology. Now, this went beyond previous deals, arms deals, between the Russians and the Iranians that we knew about. There are existing public deals for Russia to supply Suhoi 35 fighter jets to Iran. And apparently, first trainers, a training aircraft in preparation for that deal have already arrived in Iran. So there's a lot of work going on in that respect. But the delivery of air defence missiles, these air defence missiles,

was not part of that package. So there's been some kind of a deal done. The Russians almost certainly do not give these weapons for nothing. They will have demanded something from the Iranians in return. The Russians produce significant numbers. of short-range ballistic missiles, the Skanda-Ms that we hear about, but having a number,

having 200 ballistic missiles supplied by Iran provides a useful capability, which they can use effectively on the Ukrainian battlefields. So it looks to me like a straight swap. Iranian ballistic missiles in return for Russian air defense systems. Why the outrage? from the collective west. Is this more about Iran or more about Russia and conflict in Ukraine? It's about Russia and it's about what the Russians are doing.

If we go back, it seems astonishing to say this, but if we go back just a few years, there was a time where Russia was enforcing an embargo on arms shipments to Iran and an embargo and armships meant to North Korea. Now, as a result of Western policy, the Russians are now working closely with both the North Koreans and with the Iranians on weapons development. And whereas North Korea was in itself a major military power

because it has nuclear weapons, Iran, much less so. And the West has been thinking, at various times, various people in the West, as we've discussed many times, various people in Israel, as we have discussed many times, have been thinking about attacks on Iran. Well, these new links, these defence links between Russia and Iran make the idea of a Western military attack on Iran

much less attractive than they would have been previously because it won't just be the Iranian air defence system, such as they are, that the West would be up against, but the very sophisticated and well-known Russian air defence systems that the Western powers have seen in action in Ukraine and which they don't really want to tangle with. So this is, I think, the real cause of the outrage, It means that step by step, Iran's defenses are getting stronger.

And of course, they don't want to talk about that. They don't really want to talk about Iran getting stronger. So they displace it by expressing outrage about the Iranians supplying ballistic missiles to the Russians. But it's really the traffic, I suspect, in the other direction that worries them more. Okay, yeah, that was that was the answer to my question. They're more concerned. They're presenting it in the context of, of the conflict in Ukraine. Their outrage is directed at the conflict in Ukraine.

Oh, my God. They're giving short-range ballistic missiles. Iran is giving short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. You know, we're outraged at this. We're concerned. This is troubling. But what really concerns them is not so much. the ballistic missiles to Russia. It may concern them, probably concerns Ukraine, absolutely.

But what really concerns the United States is the fact that Iran is building up their defenses with the help of Russia. Yes. Iran's military defenses are a complex mix of some systems that are fairly advanced and others which have their roots back in the 1960s. So that, for example, the major fighter jet of the Iranian Air Force is the F-14, which is developed by the United States, starting in the 1960s, but whose heyday was perhaps in the 1980s. You remember the film with Tom Cruise. It was supplied to Iran in the 1970s during the reign of the Shah of Iran. And also the Iranians still operate F4 phantoms, which were the major fighter jet of the US Air Force at the time of the Vietnam War. So this has made Iran look like a fairly open target

because their air force and their air defences have looked rather, well, weak until now. Suddenly the Iranians are going to start having all of these much more powerful, far more sophisticated capabilities. It's been a priority for the Western powers and for the Israelis, obviously, to prevent Iran developing its military into full-scale technological capabilities right across the board. The Iranians are probably quite advanced in certain niche areas, like, you know, possibly ballistic missiles, obviously certain times. Obviously, certain types of drones, but they don't have a full spectrum military because they don't have the technological and industrial depth to do that. With the Russians, they might become that

kind of full spectrum military. And that would be a very alarming prospect, both for the Americans and for the Israelis and for the NATO powers. So that's why they're really angry. But who has brought it about? Yeah, all these endless threats against Iran. have made the Iranians want to turn to the Russians and all the sanctions and threats against the Russians mean that the Russians now look for friends and they find them in Iran. So it is completely unsurprising.

If I could just add to this, that I think that all of these military, you know, military exchanges, these arms deliveries, from the Russians to the Iranians, to the Iranians to the Russians, also probably solve the puzzle of why so far the Iranians have not responded to the assassination of Ismail Hanea, while they haven't launched major missile strikes on Israel and those sort of things.

It looks to me as is the Iranians have made a decision that the Israeli government, the Netanyahu government, what's a war with Iran. Iran's priority now is not therefore to launch missile strikes and provoke a war at a time when the Israelis want it. They are primarily focused at the moment on strengthening their own defenses and building up their military and absorbing all these arms deliveries from the Russians until they feel that they're ready. And then maybe once that's being, done, at least to the level that is sufficient to provide an adequate deterrent, then probably the Iranians will respond. Their report circulating, by this is causing strain between Iran and some of its allies. There are reports that some weeks ago a meeting took place somewhere in

the Middle East. These are only reports. Look like they might be true. A meeting took place. somewhere in the Middle East, in which representatives of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had to explain Iran's strategy to the representatives of various Shia militias who are allied to Iran, including Hezbollah, and we're explaining why at this time a conflict with Israel would be more to Israel's advantage. And apparently some of these representatives of these militias were furious. The meeting was very stormy and angry words were exchanged and some of the people apparently left the meeting very angry and had to be persuaded to come back. So the Iranians are having to work very, very hard, both on the diplomatic angle

of keeping their own allies in line, even as they press forward with this relationship. with Russia. They're anticipating Iran is anticipating if they do launch a retaliation. They're anticipating a big, a big retaliation back from Israel and the United States. Yes. So they're preparing. Yes.

This is bad news. I mean, when you take a step back and look at everything that's happened, this is really, really bad news. It looks like all sides are prepared for a big conflict. My own view is the next year, the big conflict will no longer be the one in Ukraine. It will be the one in the Middle East.

I think that the storm clouds are gathering and they're getting darker. That's, I mean, I may be completely wrong about this, but I sense that the Iranians have decided that the government in Israel, I don't mean Israeli society, which is divided on this question, as on so many other things, But the government in Israel, Netanyahu and the other leading ministers there, that they are absolutely set on a war with Iran. I think the Iranians have looked at the political situation in the United States, and they probably concluded maybe not entirely correctly that if a war, regardless of who wins the election, they're not going to restrain. the Israelis from launching that war.

And so the Iranians are now preparing their defenses in preparation for the war that they believe is going to come and are, in effect, mobilizing. All right. We will end the video there, the duran.com. We are on Rumble Odyssey, bitchoo, you, telegram, Rockfin, and TwitterX, and go to the Duran shop, pick up some merch like the shirts that we are wearing. today in this video take care