Urdu → English transcript

I spoke about this with Tehran-based journalist and analyst Jan Hussain and asked him what and how high a price Iran has had to pay for this war so far, and how the Iranian government sees it.

Look, the damage that has happened here, which can be called the cost, is that around three thousand four hundred people here have lost their lives.

And thousands of people have been wounded.

Around one hundred twenty-five thousand civilian buildings have been destroyed, and among them are one hundred thousand residential units, residential locations.

according to the Red Crescent Society of Iran, and besides that, of course there were military targets, but also biscuit-making factories

There were of course military targets, but also biscuit-making factories.

Here, a narrative of nationalism is found, of a nation as a united entity, that whenever an external aggressor comes, they come into this defensive mode.

And even just now we were seeing that when Donald Trump talked about ending a civilization, people here went and stood over the Iranian power plants.

So how has this war affected Iran’s international standing?

When this war started, if we talk about the Iranians’ strategic objectives and the goals at that time…

There was this view among the Iranian public that we have to defend ourselves at any cost.

That in no way should we allow ourselves to break apart or be completely destroyed.

And that we must engage with America and with Israel.

Now, as the war went on and Iran took control over the Strait of Hormuz…

Now the public opinion seems to be that Iran should control the Strait of Hormuz

Iran should not, in any way, let the Strait of Hormuz go to the United States, at least

So this shift that has happened, from a defensive position to protecting strategic objectives

Or to maintain it, I think this answer shows that Iranians feel they have won this war

against a global power, as a superpower, and when The New York Times wrote the article

And it was also shown inside Iran how people all over the world were talking about it

That Iran, as a superpower, is moving forward—what does Iran think about Pakistan…

Inside, reservations are increasing. What kind of lack of trust are you seeing?

Or are conditions the same as before? Within Iran there was the impression that if the Strait of Hormuz opened…

So after the Strait of Hormuz was opened, the naval blockade was supposed to be lifted.

But when the Strait of Hormuz was opened by Iran and the naval blockade was not lifted…

…then there was a bit of a feeling here that maybe America was also misleading Pakistan in some way.

In this, Pakistan’s intentions were not doubted, rather a question mark was raised again over the United States.

Whether America is serious about this negotiation or not.

Regarding the new Iranian leadership, a question that comes to mind is this:

At this time, who has the authority to make the final decision in the negotiations?

In my view, the authority to make the final decision lies with the National Security Council.

We saw that their Pasdaran-e-Inqilab, which is like the IRGC…

…it held the ceasefire, while the opinion seems to be…

…and it seems that way, it also seems that way from the statements.

that they do not want a ceasefire or, for example, they want to carry this war forward

or they want to keep it going

but even then we saw that Iran maintained the ceasefire from here

even though we also saw internal differences

for example, Mr. Rezaei, who is the chief of the National Security Commission

he said that I do not think talks should take place

Mr. Kalibaf, who is a man of principles

from his side we saw much harsher statements within the political class

whereas Mr. Araghchi, for example, who is a reformist, an Islah-pasand

from his side there was a statement in a different manner, but

fundamentally, at the basic level, everyone’s concerns seemed to be the same

and the form of the demands also appeared the same to us

that the basic demands were the same, but the way of expressing them was different