00:00Yeah, it's a psychological blow as well to the leadership in Iran to know that Israel from far away is able to, through pressing a few buttons, target and kill some very senior figures.
00:13Do you think that's got the leadership all the way at the top feeling extremely vulnerable and perhaps rather nervous about their own futures?
00:23Well, it must have. They're not showing it. I mean, the system is showing some level of continuity.
00:29They're talking about retaliation in Israel, paying back for this.
00:33But obviously, there must be stress and worry at the top levels.
00:36But I also want to reiterate that Iran is a large nation state.
00:41This is not a militia. We're not talking about Hezbollah.
00:44I've seen comparison being done, for example, with Hezbollah or with Hamas.
00:48This is not that. This is not we're not dealing with a paramilitary as part of a country.
00:55This is actual nation state. It's a large country.
00:58At the end of the day, with a big population, the central government has a certain level of strength.
01:05There is all kinds of armed forces. It's not just these individuals.
01:09They have been quickly replaced.
01:10So I think, as again, a country as a nation state, they will be able to sort of recuperate and continue and collect themselves.
01:20We've seen the retaliation already started with the drones flying towards Israel, etc.
01:25But I think the main issue here, if we look at the big picture also, is the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks that were ongoing.
01:35The next round was scheduled for the Sunday.
01:37This was an attempt at sabotaging diplomacy also.
01:40It looks like a military operation.
01:42But the president, the prime minister, the Israeli prime minister has been trying to sabotage nuclear diplomacy since the Obama era and now under Trump.
01:50And he saw this opportunity, this window of opportunity.
01:53And this was the best way to essentially launch a military operation to be able to, at the same time, hit these targets,
02:01but also hit diplomacy, which I think was the main target.
