00:00To get a view from inside Tehran, I'm joined by a special guest, Hamid Reza Gholamzadeh,
00:05former Deputy for International Affairs at Tehran Municipality, Secretary General of Asian
00:09Mayor's Forum and now Director of Diplo House from Tehran. I appreciate your joining us,
00:15Mr. Gholamzadeh. Eid Mubarak, Navroz Mubarak to you. But it is a rather dark Eid for the people
00:20of Iran and Tehran. Lots, there's been incessant bombing of your city. Can you give us a sense
00:26from inside Iran, what you've been seeing around you in the last 24 hours or the last few days?
00:33Thank you very much. And Eid Mubarak, you know, it was actually a dark year, we can say. We lost
00:41a lot of people. We had two wars for the Iranian year. For recent days, we did not have that
00:49much
00:49attack inside Tehran. There were some actually assassination attempts, some of them successful,
00:55some of them unsuccessful, unfortunately. In Tehran, but the other, the main attacks were in other
01:02areas. For example, in northern part of country, against the naval forces and also in southern
01:09border of Iran, all around the Persian Gulf and Sea of Amman, the border areas were attacked. So we
01:18did not have that much attacks in Tehran in recent days. The reason is that the command is now in
01:26control
01:27of the Israelis. And Israelis are not that type of massive bombardments, usually. They are more
01:36a fascination style, and they attack, assassinate people and people. And in border, in southern part,
01:45it is American style, massively bombarding different places and buildings. And it seems that they are
01:54actually... But is there a sense of fear? Is there a sense of fear and uncertainty among people? Are
02:04people afraid to go out? Or is there a palpable sense of uncertainty? What happens next?
02:13No way. You know, life is going on very normally in the country.
02:19You know, there is a grand border in Tehran and people were massively there at any shopping centers in the
02:28city
02:28because people were buying for no-lose and things that we have constantly and traditionally,
02:35we have for no-lose than we bring in New Year. Everything was going very normal. And life is no
02:42different, actually, compared to a month ago. And people were doing their jobs. They're doing their
02:50lands. They're doing everything they like that they have. And there is no fear among them. Actually,
02:56every night, people go to the streets to commemorate the martyrs, to chant against the enemy and to
03:03support the government. And it has been for every night, every single night has been done massively in
03:11in several places in each city, especially in Sifat-e-Rong, which is a large city. And today,
03:18actually, about an hour from now, later today, people are going to celebrate the
03:26no-lose together on the streets. So there is a call for people to gather there and to
03:32Right.
03:33celebrate the no-lose massively together.
03:37You're you're saying people are going to celebrate you're going to you're saying people are going to
03:41celebrate now, Rose. It's the Iranian New Year, the Persian New Year. But is there a
03:48the assassinations that you spoke about the fact that so many of the top leaders have been assassinated
03:55by the Israelis in particular? Is that a cause of concern? Who is there to lead the people of Iran?
04:02Is there a sense that of a political vacuum and and people don't know, therefore, as I said,
04:08what happens next? There is no latency in power, actually. The supreme leader, which was the top
04:16one, has been replaced by his son. And actually, we have the supreme leader right now. Other positions have
04:24mainly been replaced by the others. Actually, after the 12-day war that he had in last June,
04:30there was this order from the Ayatollah Khamenei that every high-ranking official, either in the armed
04:37forces or in the government among politicians, they were ordered to appoint and and they made three to
04:45five people to replace them. So the chain of command for every single official is what is actually clear,
04:54after three to five people. And when one commander, one politician, one figure is removed, another
05:01person takes the place and continues their job as it is supposed to go on. And so there is no
05:08actually meditation in activities. And everything is going on over.
05:14You're saying, you're saying, you're saying, you're saying, Mr. Gholamzadeh, there is no vacancy,
05:22but are the people really fully behind the regime? Because the Israelis and Americans are saying that
05:29the regime is slowly but surely losing support. Are the people really behind the regime even now,
05:36given the kind of economic fallout this war is causing on your on your country? Are the people
05:42behind the regime or are they losing confidence in the regime?
05:48There is no... Behind the regime, I don't know what you mean, but what is behind the regime and
05:55supporting regime is Iranian people. They are supporting the government. So I don't call them
06:00the quality regime. I call it the government that is supported by the people. And you can easily see
06:05them in massive rallies every night, every day across the country. So as long as people are supporting
06:14the Islamic Republic, there is no challenges in the power of the country. And it has been actually
06:21more important than missiles and drones that Iran is using military to defense itself. People have been
06:27more significant either in June or last year or January this year in the ROH and also in this
06:33Ramadan war that is going on. So people are supporting and there is no challenge for the people,
06:40no problem for the government. And in terms of economic damages, that's what's happened. Iran has said that
06:47if there is going to be a ceasefire, that we need to include compensation for the damages. So Iran is
06:55going to ask for compensation and not only from the Americans and the Israelis, but also from other
07:00countries, including the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, who have been advocating and helping and
07:05every time when Israel is attacking. So right now some attacks are being carried out.
07:10Yeah, but it's very unlikely that those damages are going to be given. I just want
07:19to understand the human and economic costs. One report from a human rights website in the US,
07:26a human rights group in the US is saying more than 3000 people have been killed in the latest wave
07:33of
07:33attacks in Iran, including more than 200 children. There is also, of course, I repeat, the fact that
07:41prices have gone up. There's inflation on the street. You're still telling me despite the human cost,
07:47despite the economic costs, the people of Iran are standing by your government. Am I correct?
07:52That's what that's the message you're trying to give today. That's exactly correct. First of all,
07:58the latest casualty numbers that they have is not that much. It is less than 2000. Maybe I'm not
08:04updated, of course. There are hundreds of children that have been killed, especially on the very first
08:10day that they attacked their school and killed 168 students. It was actually a high number. Inflation
08:18does not happen. Actually, the currency value has risen for the past three weeks and there has been no
08:25inflation. And the rising expenses and prices are all around the world, nothing in Iran. We didn't have
08:32any rising prices or any inflation or something like that. As I said, currency value has actually
08:41increased and has improved in Iran. So people are not supporting the government. How do you respond?
08:51How do you respond? Go on, please. Right. How do you respond though, Mr. Gholamzadeh,
08:57to those who are saying Iran is being isolated? The Gulf countries are angry with you. You've targeted
09:05gas installations in Qatar. There have been drone and missile attacks on Dubai. There have been attacks
09:12on Saudi Arabia, on Kuwait. So the Iranians are getting isolated within West Asia. How will you
09:19respond that Iran, already we are told that all Iranian establishments in Dubai are being closed down.
09:25Do you concede that Iran is being isolated or not?
09:30Those who interpret like that are thinking a cliche and stereotypically thinking based on the world
09:39order that was in place in the past. But with this war, the genie is out of bottom and the
09:46new Iran is
09:47emerging and the order, the regional order is totally different from three weeks ago. So now on,
09:56they depend on Iran. They need Iran for their own security. And the whole world needs Iran for the
10:03security and possibility of using the straight of foremost. So Iran is not going to let the straight
10:09of foremost be like it was a month ago or three weeks ago. And if countries want to use that,
10:15they need to pay some tariffs for passing through that for the security that Iran is making for the
10:22future of this, straight of foremost. And also that you want an equation that Iran has set for the
10:31Russians to go, that will change the order of the region. And so you are in the past.
10:40So you're telling me that you are confident that Iran is going to win this war? Are you telling me
10:45that
10:57Iran has already won the war? Iran has already won the war. They wanted to make the regime change and
11:05they have now removed from that. Iran, they said that they are going to send the separatist groups to
11:13the Kurdish separatist groups to destroy the country. They failed to do that. Iran could prevent it.
11:19They said that there would be riots and there would be implosion and to change for the regime change
11:24by the people inside the country. They failed to do that. So Iran has already won the war. Iran has
11:29defeated
11:30the largest army in the world. Iran has, for the first time, hit an F-35 fighter jet, which is
11:38the
11:38radar staff fighter jet, a modern one. Iran has destroyed actually and damaged the aircraft carrier
11:47of the Americans. Iran has been actually successful in fighting against Israeli and the Americans.
11:54You've also struck energy and gas fields in Qatar. You've also struck energy and gas fields in Qatar.
12:03And many believe that that is a reckless act. No, it was actually a retaliation. The reckless act
12:09was the strike that the Israelis carried out against Iranian infrastructure. It was something that
12:15President Trump even admitted that and some we can't say he apologized for that. Iran retaliated and
12:22was a warning that Iran had given. Anything that they use, Iran would retaliate stronger. So they
12:28attack infrastructure, Iran impacts infrastructure. They attack oil facilities. They attack water
12:34desalination, Iran impacts water desalination. So everything is actually an equation that Iran has
12:39said. If you attack anything, I would attack more than that. So it was not a reckless act from the
12:45Iranian
12:46side. It was a reckless act from the Israeli side to attack Iranian facilities. And they are
12:52making the whole world to pay for that. If oil prices have risen more than half 50 percent,
12:58it's because they attacked Iran. If Europeans were paying more prices for gas because of the attack,
13:05Iran. And if Indian currency value had dropped and the government has paid a lot of money to compensate
13:14that, it is actually because of the American-Israeli attack. So that's the point. The main mistake was
13:22by U.S.-Israeli attack. Okay, I'm going to leave it there. I think that's a view from Tehran,
13:34from someone who's worked closely with the administration there. I appreciate you joining
13:40us there. Mr. Ghulamzadi, thank you so much for joining us in these difficult times. I appreciate it.
13:46so
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