00:00And now we welcome journalist, activist and social organizer, Yamir Shabur,
00:06member of the Troika Collective, to help us analyze the events unfolding in the Middle East.
00:11Yamir, thank you for joining us.
00:14Thank you for having me.
00:17Are we witnessing a turning point in the international system
00:21where the targeted assassination of senior political leaders
00:25is becoming normalized as a tool of foreign policy?
00:28And what precedent does this set for future disputes between powers?
00:36So, as we saw what occurred yesterday with the recent strikes from the U.S. and Israel
00:45onto the Islamic Republic of Iran, we're seeing a shaping of foreign policy
00:53and coming back to a classic version of imperial aggression.
01:02As far as what we see in Iran, we see that there's this attempt by the West,
01:12the United States, and Israel to do regime change
01:15and to gain dominance and control over the world.
01:20The United States does not want Iran to be in alignment with what we see,
01:28the multipolar world happening with China, with Russia, Brazil,
01:33this whole BRICS type of alignment, South by South alignment.
01:36But as well as Iran has been the thorn on the side of the state of Israel,
01:43the settler colonial state of Israel, which is propped up by the United States
01:46as far as their hegemon controlling that region as we see
01:52or known as the Middle East or it could also be known as West Asia.
01:57So, we're seeing a big-time debacle in this geopolitical scenario,
02:04but right now the peoples of the world are digesting this at this moment,
02:11including or especially the people of Iran who have fatally suffered
02:17and endured a new terrorist attack from imperialist forces.
02:26Right now, the other question goes,
02:29Iranian authorities are sure they have surprises ahead.
02:33What can we expect?
02:36Yeah, Iran is a country, a very big country in the Middle East
02:45and also with a high population of 93 million inhabitants.
02:50We saw yesterday Iran, after receiving the attacks from the United States
02:58after their leader, their supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei,
03:05being assassinated by the U.S.
03:08We've seen the response from the Iranian state of attacking six other countries
03:15in the area, in the Middle East, who are allies of the U.S. and Israel.
03:22This includes the Emirates.
03:26This includes strikes in Kuwait, Jordan, and Israel.
03:34This is because Iran is a big-time military power in that region.
03:40So we see Iran is planning, well, it has already retaliated.
03:47So we have to just keep following this process as it goes.
03:55How can we compare what happened a few months ago during the 12-day war
04:02and the new circumstances in which this new aggression takes place
04:06in matters of Iran's military capacities?
04:12Yeah, so we see what occurred during the 12-day war
04:18when Israel was at war with the other Arab states,
04:22being because Israel is in itself a Western creation,
04:28a satellite state for Western European domination
04:33amongst Arab and Middle Eastern people.
04:36So this is a continuation of that where Israel's goal with Iran
04:44isn't to try to put in a puppet government in power.
04:48It's to have Iran fall as a society.
04:52It's to divide Iran.
04:54It's the strategy that they would love to implement
04:58is the same strategy that they did with Syria,
05:00that they were able to divide Syria
05:03and allow it to weaken itself as a state
05:08and be able to overthrow its state and leader
05:12as they did with Bashir al-Assad just a year ago
05:17and impose a leader from Al-Qaeda,
05:23which they kind of rebranded, made it seem more progressive,
05:27but this is a leader that was part of a terrorist organization,
05:32which now is the head of state of Syria
05:37and has allegiance to Israel
05:42and the Donald Trump administration.
05:43Same thing that they would love to do in Iran.
05:47Why?
05:48Because Iran is a thorn on the side of the United States
05:54and Israel's goal to control that area, the resources.
05:58Iran, just like Venezuela,
06:01is a country rich in oil, petroleum.
06:07One of the many reasons why the United States intervened in Venezuela,
06:11attacked Venezuela on January 3rd
06:14and kidnapped its president and first lady, Nicolás Maduro and Cecilia Flores.
06:18It's the same thing, why they are intervening in Iran.
06:23Another reason is Iran's allegiance to China
06:29as well as to Russia.
06:31But one last part, one last component is due to Iran's historic Islamic revolution in 1979,
06:39where the Iranian people were able to overthrow and depose a Western puppet known as the Shah.
06:47So there are many different levels and components to this,
06:51but I believe that we, the people of the world, must stand in solidarity
06:57and stand against any new wars.
07:01We have seen multiple demonstrations by United States citizens in that country
07:06condemning the joint attacks between the United States and Israel against Iran.
07:10In this regard, what's the role of the international community,
07:14specifically in the United States,
07:18in halting its ongoing violations of international law?
07:23Yeah, there's a big time connection with the people of the United States
07:27and their anti-war participation at this very moment.
07:31Why?
07:32Because in the United States, we are suffering due to economic crisis and affordability crisis.
07:39A lot of Americans, quote unquote,
07:41do not have access to health care, do not have access to education.
07:45There's an increase of unemployment, housing.
07:50As where I'm living in, in New York City, there's a massive increase of housing.
07:57So this is one of the many reasons why we elected a very progressive socialist mayor known as Zoran Mamdani.
08:05But all is this to say that this is because we have a government, a system,
08:13that doesn't invest in people's social mobility, people's social security.
08:20They rather invest in these imperialist wars for the billionaires out in Wall Street,
08:26out in Silicon Valley, the weapons manufacturers,
08:31they rather invest in that, do service for that,
08:36and put the money, our tax money of the working class,
08:40into wars, foreign wars, for imperialist domination.
08:46And that's why, and who suffers?
08:49The people of the global south who get invaded and intervened in the way it just happened in Iran
08:57or in Venezuela back in the beginning of January,
09:01all of that is, or the people of Palestine,
09:03who as well are suffering under a genocide in Gaza
09:08by the state of Israel being funded by our U.S. tax dollars.
09:12That's why it's very important that us people of the United States
09:16take to the streets and really stop this war that has already started from escalating even more
09:24because at the end of the day, we're going to have also innocent American people
09:33who are in the army due to reasons of necessity fight a war for the rich,
09:41fight the war for the oligarchy,
09:42because at the end of the day, Donald Trump is not going to fight this war.
09:45Benjamin Netanyahu is not going to fight this war.
09:48Their children are not going to fight this war.
09:50It's going to be the children of the working class
09:53who are going to spill their blood in these wars of just imperialist domination and aggression.
10:01So this is why we, the people, must stand against this
10:08and continue marching in the streets.
10:13Amir, thank you so much for joining us in Telesur English.
10:17Thank you for having me.
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